


A Paladin's Soul

by Julie_Teerah_Eterna



Category: Eterna Storia, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Jake, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Anxiety, Asexual Character, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, Confused aliens, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, French Characters, Friends to Lovers, I Ship It, I'll add more tags as this goes on, M/M, Missing Persons, Multi, POV Alternating, POV Original Character, Paladins, Pansexual Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Quintessence, Slow Burn, Space War, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Underage Drinking, Voltron au, War, Yoann is missing, altean Zamia, alternative universe, don't get too attached, i am satan, italian characters, nerd references, plot doesn't revolve around ships but don't worry there'll be some, poc characters, so many are gay, soulmates are a thing here, they'll switch Lion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-03-28 14:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13906209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julie_Teerah_Eterna/pseuds/Julie_Teerah_Eterna
Summary: Voltron's basic plot, but with some changes... and my OCs.This time, the story begins at the E.G.G - the European Galaxy Garrison. Julie, mostly known as Jijii, was just sneaking out with her bestfriend Pauline, to rejoin their two other friends, Léo and Jack, and look at the starry sky they all dreamed to explore one day. But on their way, they overheard the Commander and some teachers talk about the disappearance of two students a year ago. Eliott and Yoann - Jijii's best friends. As if it wasn't terrible already, they learn about the E.G.G's new program: they are going to select a few students and send them on a 'field trip'. But the teenagers know it: they're going to be sent to their own death, just like they did with Eliott and Yoann when they left for the Kerberos mission.I can hear you already: "But they're just teenagers! Even though they're known as renegades, what can they do against what the facility decides for them?"Oh Dear. With Jijii and her random, impulsive decisions, you're in for the wildest ride of your life.Many changes will happen in the plot! Some elements will be kept (Kerberos mission, finding Blue) but then, the story will take another turn. A much darker one.





	1. Dig deeper under the big dipper

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Little_Dragon_Writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Dragon_Writes/gifts), [Zamia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamia/gifts).



> Hello everyone!  
>  I hope that you'll enjoy this AU and quickly get attached to those OCs. I know it's unusual (for me as well) to read an AU with characters people don't know about, but I hope it won't stop you from enjoying this AU and what those characters are going to go through ;)  
>  Yes, THERE WILL BE SOME SHIPS (capslocking it for the people in the back who were wondering). It will go slow for some ships, will be obvious for another *wink wink*, and again... another ship will be heart-breaking because you'll be torn apart between shipping A with B... or shipping them with C.
> 
> [Little_Dragon_Writes](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Dragon_Writes/pseuds/Little_Dragon_Writes), [Zamia](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamia/pseuds/Zamia), I dedicate this story to the two of you. Because you're always supporting me and helping me and bringing me back to reality when my self-depreciating mood brings me down. Thank you for all of this, and I hope you'll like the turn the events here will take!
> 
> PS: My dear friends Maud, Zamia and Ryn, THANK YOU SO MUCH for beta-ing me and encouraging me to write despite my clumsiness.

“Are we doing this? For real? I mean, should we be doing this? _Jijii_. I am pretty much sure that we shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Pauline, stop being a coward and come! Crawl after me, we’re almost there…”

The smaller girl flashed a grin at her friend and put on the hood of her sweatshirt. Pauline groaned sadly and followed her best friend, with no concrete explanation on where they actually were heading to.

The taller brunette bent down and quickly snuck out of their room after Jijii, the guards far away enough not to hear their steps. Jijii took a screwdriver out of her sweatshirt’s pocket – why the hell did she have such things with her? – and started to unscrew the grid of the floor level air vent. As soon as she was done, she smiled at her friend and got in, crawling without difficulty.

“Pff, you’re advantaged because you’re _short…_ ” Pauline mumbled under her breath, pouting but going after her.

Because whatever was going to happen, she knew they wouldn’t get in trouble for it.

Okay, two students sneaking out of their dorms at midnight was definitely something punishable. But as long as they didn’t get caught, nothing would happen, right? And if Pauline was sure of one thing, it was that Jijii was a damn ninja.

Well, not… not really; but! But her friend was _always_ doing things and going places even if it was against the rules, and she never had troubles for it _since no one ever noticed!_

“Wait.” Jijii hissed and abruptly stopped. They both gulped and listened to the noises outside of the vent. Some people were having a heated discussion.

“ _... not safe!_ ”

“It’s safe enough! The students are here to learn after all. Aren’t they, Commander?”

Said Commander didn’t give an answer.

It was worrying.

“To learn?!” The first man – the girls recognized him as Schuster, who was in charge of teaching politics and law – yelled and banged his fist on the nearest wall, making both of the girls shiver. “That is not ‘learning’! You can’t just select the students you don’t like and send them on a so called ‘mission’! If you want to get rid of them, you will need to do so following the rules! There are laws and they’re not to be ignored.”

“Professor Schuster.” A new voice interjected – Pauline recognised him as the Commander in charge of their school; he had given a speech when they had first entered the program in middle school. “We do believe it would be a way to be seen as more… assertive. The other schools all did such tests, but they made the mistake of sending their best students. Remember Seren and Scognamiglio ?”

Pauline covered her mouth with a hand to not yelp. The vent was lighted enough so that she could see her best friend’s face. Her smile had disappeared and coldness had taken over – of course she remembered Seren and Scognamiglio: they were her family.

“Of course I remember them. They were our top students and that’s how they’ve been offered to study oversea, at the American Galaxy Garrison.” Annoyance was tangible in his voice. “And then, they were sent to the Kerberos mission even though they were still cadets. All of this in the name of–”

“Field formation.” The other teacher cut – Pauline never remembered his name, and thus, because Jijii only called him ‘ _Mister baguette-in-the-butt_ ’ aka Mister BITB. Sometimes, she hated her best friend’s stupidity. “Every Garrison around the world is doing it nowadays; we have to prepare cadets in all possible ways. Hence, sending them to _real work_.”

“More like sending them to _their death_.”

Silence followed his words – everyone remembered what had happened a year ago.

Jijii closed her eyes and bit her lips ferociously, nails digging deep into the thin skin of the inner side of her elbows. Eliott Scognamiglio and Yoann Seren – her childhood friends.

Her family.

They had been the ones to convince her to try and follow the program of the Galaxy Garrison of Europe. They were two years older but, as she was advanced for her age, there was only a one grade difference between them.

She was not good with sciences in general; she liked it a lot, but her brain was not made to think like a scientist or an engineer or whatever work that required maths and physics. But, as her friends had told her, she had great instincts. She was rather impulsive at times, but always managed to find a way to keep up with other people. She had a twisted way of thinking but was great at communicating with other people and at learning by reading a great variety of books. The three of them had then decided that the Galaxy Garrison needed more than just a bunch of scientists if they were to be traveling in space.

But then, her family had disappeared – they were lost in that space they had wanted to explore for so long. They had been overjoyed to go on a real mission; Eliott would be piloting the ship and Yoann was one hell of a programer – Eliott and Jijii often joked about how great he was at making friends, even if said friend was a computer.

The voice of the Commander shook her out of her thoughts.

“We were all pained to lose such great cadets. But all technological and scientific advancement need sacrifices. Progress is what we need to focus on and if we have to give up a few students a year for it, we will do so.”

“Oceania refused to make this sacrifice. They have some integrity left and won’t send children to their death.” Schuster refuted, almost growling.

“Yeah, and they won’t send anyone anywhere because, by refusing to assign ‘field mission’ to cadets once a year, they lost half of their sponsors. We can’t afford to do the same.” Mister BITB pointed out sarcastically. “And we have a great strategy to minimize our losses.”

Okay, now, Pauline had a terrible feeling. Something here was definitely worrying.

“We won’t be sending our best student. The field mission will be for the students we can… afford, to lose. Not those with the worst results – that maneuver would be too obvious. But do not worry anymore than this, we already have a list made out and approved of.”

“But–”

“Get out.” The Commander warned. “If you want to keep your job here, you had better get out now and keep a low profile. If I hear a single rumor, a single word, you’ll be fired on the spot and you’ll be sued. Am I clear, sir?”

A heavy silence followed and Schuster answered only a while after, cringing, his voice dull.

“Crystal clear, sir.”

The door opened and closed.

The two girls exchanged a glance and nodded, slowly crawling again in the vents. Jijii often glanced at the inside of her left wrist, where she had drawn the map of the air vents. Not that she actually needed – she had wandered here alone long enough to know all paths, even the ones that were not in the official records of the school.

The small girl focused on this; this idea of comparing their school to a spacey-Hogwarts, to not get lost in thoughts about what she had heard. She knew more than she let others know and had kept her mouth shut about her researches because if she were to get caught, she didn’t want to drag her friends into her fall.

Behind her, Pauline was silent. They were supposed to be, after all. Nevertheless, Jijii knew that her friend was clearly worried and overthinking the informations they had just learned.

After a few minutes, she faced the last grid that separated them from their end goal and got rid of it. She wriggled out of there and took support on her knees, taking in deep breaths of cold air. She turned around and lent a hand to Pauline, dragging her up on her feet, smiling. Jijii was okay staying in dark, narrowed places for a while, but Pauline was not fond of this activity.

“Damn, girls! You’re finally here!” A voice called from further away and two boys, still in uniforms, came their way.

They were all reunited on the small roof of an old room where material was gathered. This storage room was but a small building, almost deserted by the staff – they only came here to gather old records, and the electricity had been cut off. No light illuminated the room inside nor the outside of this building. It was far from all accomodation where living people resided or worked. That old abandoned look was reinforced by the wildlife that had grown onto the walls. Green plants had found their way into the smallest cracks and one of the walls was covered in ivy.

It was their safe place.

It was the place where they could talk and play around and, basically, it was where they would reunite in order to find shattered pieces of the home they had had to leave behind in order to be part of the Galaxy Garrison program.

Jijii took her hood off and smiled at the dark haired boy who was coming her way. They high fived even though he was still pouting and she grinned, relieved to see him there.

This guy here? It was Léo. He was one of Jijii’s best friends and had been here for her, even when Eliott and Yoann had still been… on earth. He was almost six feet tall and quite muscular – it was part of the job to have strong arms and developed back muscles. His messy black hair fell in front of his brown eyes, and in the obscurity of the night, his light-caramel skin appeared darker.

Léo was a sassy bitch and mastered every tone you could possibly make to whine – he was a great friend who would complain with her when she had enough of every-fucking-thing at the Garrison. Together, they were the dorkiest duo ever.

“Are you okay? Girls, it took you forever to get there. Usually we’re the ones who are late, not you! Did they catch you?!” Another boy panicked, grabbing Pauline by the shoulders, who yelped in surprise. He was almost as tall as Léo, had light brown hair and an undercut. His eyes – colored a pretty olive green hue – went back and forth between the two girls. He was more muscular than Léo but beefier, and you could guess with one glance that his hugs were A++ quality.

Basically, Jijii saw him as an adorable big cinnamon roll that she was proud to be friends with and respected a lot.

“Jack. You really think we’d be here if we had been caught?”

“I hate to agree with Jijii, but for once – and just this once – she’s not wrong.” Léo admitted with an exaggerated sigh.

“Can’t you just say ‘she is right’ like a normal person?” The small girl joked as she nudged him jovially.

“Not dramatic enough.”

They all laughed at his answer and relief finally took over. They all agreed to go on their usual spot – which meant sitting on the edge of the roof, looking at the beautiful starry sky and swinging their legs and eating stolen snacks.

The teens forgot everything for a moment. They relaxed and talked and looked at the stars they admired so much in the sky. Quickly, they started an animated discussion about the years they had spent in the Garrison and the memories of their first encounters.

“I will never forget how I met Léo!” Jijii said, ruffling the boy’s hair on her left, pressing her shoulder against his.

“No one can ever forget how they’ve met me. I mean, have you seen me?” He smiled and wiggled an eyebrow.

“No one can ever forget about their first meeting with Léo because he is a _walking disaster_.” Pauline said bluntly with a hiccup, hanging onto one of the booze bottle the guys had stolen from a teacher’s cabinet.

They all bursted out into laughter and Jack almost fell from the rooftop, Léo wrapping a careful arm around him. They both almost fell when Jijii snorted and told them they looked like they were cuddling. She grabbed Léo’s arm while still laughing and made sure the boys were alright. They were all tipsy, but that warmth in their belly made them forget about the chilly weather.

“Y’guys remember how we learned where this Garrison is located?” Jijii smiled and allowed Pauline to lean on her, her head resting on the smaller girl’s right shoulder.

“I remember our whole class being blamed for it for a year… Thank you, Léo.” Jack added.

“ _Walking disaster_.” Pauline whispered not silently at all with narrowed eyes, the neck of the bottle still half in her mouth.

Wild laughs filled the air once again, and everyone’s cheeks turned red – whereas it was from the alcohol or the laugh, no one could tell.

Jijii still remembered that day perfectly.

 

∞

 

They had been in first year, which was the equivalent of the first year of middle school in France, or the equivalent of grade 6 in the USA. Classes had started the day before. She had been lucky enough to be roomed with her childhood friend, Pauline, but apart from her, Eliott and Yoann? She knew no one.

The thing with the European branch of the Galaxy Garrison was that no one knew where it was exactly. The students had no idea and neither did most of the teachers and the basic staff. A day before the beginning of the year, they were all taken to the capital of their respective countries, and put in an airplane.

From there on, no one was allowed to tell what the destination was. And if you tried to sneak in a tracking device or GPS, you could be expelled and sued for it. The airplanes belonged to the Garrison, and when they had landed, they had only been welcomed with a ‘welcome to the European Galaxy Garrison’. Right away, a teacher had noticed Jijii, because she had told Pauline: “ _hey look, the acronym of our school is E.G.G_ ”.

She had been yelled at in front of all of the students, the new ones but also those who were already in the school, since they were to greet the newcomers. She had spotted Eliott and Yoann chuckling but raising their thumbs at her with shit-eating grins. It was that day that she had nicknamed that teacher ‘Mister Baguette-in-the-butt’.

After that, she had known that no one could beat her reputation of _most-stupid-first-year_ of the school.

Except that during one particularly boring class, she had started dozing off near a window and an ‘incident’ had happened.

She had taken that seat at the back of the room and near the window right away, which had made the dark haired boy next to her grumble. He had looked like he had wanted that seat too, but she had been faster to get it. She had been too shy to try and start a conversation, and had turned her computer on while the boy had done the same. As the class went on, she had been too absorbed gazing at the clouds outside to pay attention to the boy.

Which can explain why she almost fell from her chair when the boy right next to her had suddenly banged on the desk with both fists, and yelled at his computer:

“ _WHAT THE FUCKITY FUCK?! WE’RE IN NORWAY?! THE HELL!_ ”

The teacher had glared at him, his eyes sending daggers, hand still up and holding a pen in front of the whiteboard.

Everyone had been silent.

Everyone but Jijii, whose laughter had exploded.

Both students had been sent to the Commander’s office and had been given a terribly long lecture about the behaviour expected now that they were cadets. Then, they had had to clean up three storage rooms on their own instead of going back to class. At least, since they were new students, their punishment had been a light one and no one had threatened to expel them.

As soon as the adult who had led them here had disappeared, Jijii had smiled at Léo and offered her hand, shaking his.

“ _Happy to be sharing that awful cleaning task with the funny guy who’s going to be a legend around the E.G.G. What’s your name?_ ” She had asked with an overjoyed smile. She had only been ten years old at the time, and the height difference between her and Léo was already noticeable.

“ _Uh… I’m Léo Alzavola. And wait,_ I’m _supposed to be the future funny legend?_ You _were yelled at not five seconds after stepping on the school ground on your very first day! What was your name already?_ ” He had gasped and had finally been able to remember why her face had seemed familiar. “ _Wait, are you French too? We were in the same plane, right?_ ”

Jijii had smiled again and jumped on her spot, like the hyperactive-like child she had been. Instantly, they had switched to French and joked together about how much of a disgrace they were as future representatives of their country.

“ _I’m Julie Teerah Eterna, the number one stupid cadet. But Léo… How did you find out that we are in Norway? Because, come on! No one – in decades –_ _ever found out that intel! But you come and check on your computer and boom, you know?_ ” She had been rather curious and had guessed that Léo wasn’t just any troublemaker – he was one with a brain.

“ _Yesterday night I was homesick. So with my roommate – Jack, he’s cool and French too – we looked at the stars. We’re lucky; we have a window in our room. And so we talked about the constellations we saw. And that class we were in? It was boring as fuck sooooo… I thought ‘hey, why not look up about those constellations on internet?’ and thus I found out that at this time of the year, there’s only one time zone from where it was visible. I added two and two, because the landscape around here is quite characteristic and… that’s it?_ ”

Awkward silence.

“ _So… literally_ everyone _was searching for complex ways of finding out where we are, but you’ve just used the oldest trick humanity knows to find one’s bearings. You looked up at the stars. An eleven year old boy found the loophole no adult had expected?_ ”

She had bitten on her lips in order to contain her laugh and had failed, bursting out laughing once again because of that one of a kind guy. Léo had reddened but laughed with her and, together, they started the cleaning they had been supposed to do.

 

∞

 

“Man, I’m never forgetting this day!” Jijii swore with a shiteating smile, swinging her legs over the edge of the rooftop.

“For real? Because I’d love to...” Léo mumbled, pouting and crossing his arms.

“We all want to forget stuffs!” Pauline added, nodding a little bit too energetically – Jijii put her arm around her waist to keep her on the spot. “Look at me, I want to forget… ‘bout that time my brother made fun of me? Oh, the time when I had to do a presentation in front of the class and the bitches group made fun of me, too!”

“The bitches group?” Jack asked, eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

“Yah, those dumb girls that are here because it’s ‘cool’ and there are ‘pretty boys’...” She grumbled and shook her head, almost hitting Jijii. “Oh, and I wanna forget ‘bout what we heard the Commander and teachers say earlier.”

The mood suddenly got heavier with that last sentence. Jijii took the bottle from Pauline’s hand and drank straight from it – she finished it in one go, and it must have been half-full.

Léo and Jack stared at her, half in awe – not everyone could drink like this – and half in fear – why the hell would she, of all people, try to drink away a memory?

“You girls overheard the higher-ups talking? What was it about?”

“Eliott and Yoann.”

Jijii’s answer was devoid of any kind of feelings – it was pure coldness. She was gazing at the sea, far, far under their feet.

Their facility was situated on the border of a cliff, and the building they were on right now gave directly onto it. If one of them were to fell, it would be a long way before crashing onto the dark waters down there.

But that sensation of being over the edge, between danger and comfort, was something Jijii had always relished. When she had dragged the other teenagers here the first time – it had been during their third year; before that, only Yoann and Eliott had been taken here – she had explained to them that here, they could just be themselves and express whatever they were feeling.

She rose onto her feet, still less tipsy than her friends, and enjoyed the reflection of the milky way onto the dark ocean.

And then, she screamed with pain as loudly as possible and threw the empty bottle as far away as she could.

They all looked at it, falling, taken down by gravity and reflecting the moonlight one last time before sinking into the black waters, the same way a black hole would have drawn it in.

“They admitted they sent them to their death.” She spoke slowly, not louder than a whisper. Her gaze was now fixed on a particular constellation – the Big Dipper had always been her way to get back ‘home’. It had all started as a joke, but Yoann had called her ‘ _Alkaid_ ’ – which was one of the stars making this constellation, also known as ‘the leader’. Following his example, she had named Eliott after the star ‘ _Alphard_ ’ – ‘the lonely one’. And quickly after, Eliott had decided that Yoann would be ‘ _Polaris_ ’ – because it was the Northern Star that leaded everyone’s path, that allowed them to find their way when they were lost.

“So you think they are…” Jack started, interrupting her thoughts. She turned at him the following second, fire burning in her eyes.

“No. I am sure that they are somewhere – they’re not the kind to die that easily. I don’t care that they’re lost in space… Eliott is a damn survivor. And Yoann can literally befriend anyone, even non-humanoid people.”

“Then… what else did they say?” Jack looked up at her and she saw anxiety bloom in his olive green eyes.

“It looks like their mission was a ‘field experience’ and that every Garrison was organizing these kinds of mission for a few students, at least once a year. The higher-ups do not care that we are children, they’ve already picked a bunch of students and are going to assign them an impossible mission. There were no details but… that sounded rushed. Like they’ve waited for something and now is the time to act.”

They listened to their friend, her explanation clear and still so difficult to take in. Léo gulped audibly and took her hand, playing with her fingers. She allowed him to, watching the waves underneath once again – they were used to this, as they were quite the awkward bunch, too uneasy to hug but always up to holding hands.

“So…” The black haired boy sighed, looking at the stars once again. “Should we start getting worried for Jack?”

“For me? Why?” The teen yelped and almost fell once again – thank God, Léo hadn’t stopped holding onto him.

“Because last time, the best two students were sent to this ‘field mission’!” He explained painfully. “Dude, you’re a real genius. Everyone knows it!”

“It will be fine! They said that this time, they would not sacrifice the best students!” Pauline reassured hurriedly, an arm locked around one of Jijii’s legs. “None of us will be taken away. We’re totally average, we will be fine. We’re too normal for this shit.”

“Pauline’s kinda wasted but she’s right.” Jijii smiled, patting her friend’s head. Still standing, she shook her head and tightened her grip on Léo’s hand for a second. “We should get back in. We’re going to need some sleep, even if it was a great night. Pauline’s not in a good state to crawl back into the air vents, so…” She sent a glance in Jack’s way.

“Okay. I will hack into the security camera and keep you updated via texts about the guards.” He sighed loudly and shook his head, already taking his phone out of his pocket along with some colorful wires. “But that’s the last time, Julie!”

“Thanks buddy.” She flashed him a grin and put an arm around her best friend’s waist, supporting her weight.

He said that every single time.

 

→ → → → →

 

The very next morning, one of their class was cut short. An announcement was to be made and all students were required to go outside with their teachers. They all had to stand straight and still in the courtyard, arms crossed behind their back, despite the cold weather. Pauline was around the middle of their class’ line, and behind her followed Jijii, Léo and Jack.

Everyone around them looked so peaceful – it was a morning like any other: boring speech outside, then back to class. But for the four teenagers, it was hell. They knew what was going on. They knew that soon, they would have to clap along and congratulate the students chosen to be sent away.

It was but a public execution.

Jijii closed her eyes and forced herself to stay silent – she couldn’t know what would happen to her friends if she drew the higher-ups’ attention on her.

“Hey. Jijii.”

She turned her head, trying to be discreet. Why the hell was Léo whispering to her? And why did he look so nervous?

“What is it? Trouble in paradise, angel?”

He blushed furiously and she smirked – Léo was always surprised by her terrible jokes at awkward times. But hey, it worked: he didn’t look as anxious anymore.

“Yesterday night, when going to sleep… did you hear something?”

“No. Did you?”

He lowered his gaze and his lips disappeared in a thin, tight line. She frowned. She didn’t like seeing her partner in crime so worried.

“I’m… I’m not certain of what I heard. It was like a weird dream and… I don’t know?” He started clumsily, his babbling intensifying even though he never once raised his voice. He looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “There was a deep voice in my head? A woman’s voice, calling me her… ‘ _blue child_ ’? What does it even mean? She kept telling me that we are about to meet and there was this weird feeling in my stomach like… like that rushed mix of anxiety and relief you get before coming back home after a long time?”

Their eyes met and they both stopped breathing for a second – Jijii could tell that he was not lying, that he hadn’t imagined this. She was just as lost as him, but he needed help. So help he would get.

“Coming back home is a good thing, isn’t it?” She smiled confidently at him and nodded. “Let’s skip next class and talk about all of this. I swear to help you find the answers you need.”

The dark haired boy visibly relaxed and a small smile lifted up the corners of his lips. If not for the Commander starting his speech, they would probably have awkwardly gazed at each other a little bit longer.

They straightened their back and cleared their throat quietly, watching the one in charge of this Garrison smile broadly at everyone.

 _His mask is full of cracks – shouldn’t he know better than me how to lie, as he is a politician?_ Jijii wondered, her thoughts always much weirder than anyone else’s.

“Dear cadets, I have the honor of introducing a new characteristic to our Galaxy Garrison program. This is a new special course that will be offered to one squad per year. Every year, as we are about to do today, a team from grade 10 will be picked.” He paused and excited mutters followed in the crowd.

The french quatuor stayed silent, and they exchanged gloomy glances. It was fine, their year grade had been picked, but that didn’t mean a thing for them. It was fine.

“We know that in grade 11 and 12, as you are approaching graduation, it would be too handicapping for a squad to miss classes in order to follow this special course. We do not forget that even if you are cadets and are being trained like soldiers, you are still students and you need to focus on passing your exams.” The Commander smiled and crossed his hands on the podium in front of him, slowly bending closer to the microphone. “We picked a team randomly, thinking that sometimes, people who worked hard were not always rewarded like they should be. Thus, you all have a chance at winning the offer for the special course.”

Pauline and Jack, even apart, mumbled the same exact thing with the same horrified tone.

“We’re screwed, we’re so screwed, holy shit we’re–”

“ _Shut it!_ ” Jijii and Léo ordered in a whisper, staying as still as possible.

The crowd had quieted and everyone was waiting impatiently for the Commander to announce the lucky winners.

The man watched as silence reigned, the only ones still fidgeting being the children in grade 6. Satisfaction appeared on his face and finally, he spoke.

“We are glad to announce you that the team who was sorted out to take this special course…”

Jijii closed her eyes and thought about all the pretty stars she had seen during her short life.

“... is the team composed of Pauline Weanes,”

She took in a long breath – the wind was not strong enough to cover the sob of her best friend.

“Jack Savage,”

His desperate ‘ _no!_ ’ was only heard by Léo and her – she digged her nails deeper into the skin of her wrist.

“Léo Alzavola,”

She opened her eyes again and almost whimpered – her friend’s broken chuckle was heartbreaking.

“and Julie Teerah Eterna. Please, cheer for the cadets and make place for them to come and stand on stage!”

 _Yeah, lucky winners._ She thought bitterly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we are! End of chapter one!
> 
> I hope you liked it, don't hesitate telling me your thoughts, what you thought was great or not. I truly want to improve and even if I have the plot in mind already, chatting with readers and knowing what y'all think always inspire me A LOT.
> 
> Bonus question: you've met the future paladins already, and you know about Eliott/Yoann being the 'Shiro/Matt' of this story, sooooo... Any idea about who is going to be which paladin? I truly am curious to know your opinions on this ;)
> 
> You can also follow me on [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jijii.teerah/) or [tumblr](http://jijii-production.tumblr.com), I'd love to chat with you ! :D


	2. We’re troublemakers after all

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How chapter 1 ended: after discovering about the E.G.G.'s plan, the team has been chosen to participate in a mission they know will end by their disappearance... or death.
> 
> Now, Julie, Léo, Pauline and Jack are being moved to another place, not knowing where it will be nor what is about to happen. Will they try and escape? Will they fight against fate?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you'll like it!  
> 
> 
> I am posting today, but I might shift to posting every two weeks because of my exams... hope you'll stay tuned anyway!  
> 

As hours went by, Léo’s patience grew thinner.

After going on stage and smiling and waving at the crowd – Jijii had compared their behaviour on stage to the penguins’ in the movie _Madagascar_ , which at least had put real grins on their faces – they had been thrown into one of the Garrison’s windowless truck, along with a bunch of way-too-serious adults.

The four teenagers had not been able to retrieve their stuffs from their rooms, nor had they been able to contact anyone to tell them about the big news. In the back of the truck, they were sitting close to each other and exchanging silent glances. The men and women present with them were all wearing their military uniform and even if they tried to dissimulate it, Léo could see that they were heavily armed.

Nothing good ever came from heavily armed serious people; Léo had seen enough movies to know about this.

“ _Jijii. What do we do now?_ ” He decided to ask, in French. To his surprise, all of the adults rose an eyebrow and muttered to each other in English – had they really only picked adults who didn’t speak French to guard _them_?

The smaller girl quickly understood and discreetly nodded at him, forcing herself not to smile and keep the relaxed expression she had been wearing since she had walked up to the stage.

“ _We wait,_ ” She shrugged and turned her head to look at him, as they were sitting next to each other. “ _We have zero intel about what’s going to happen. If they actually do send us on a real mission, we’ll have chances to escape. If they’re trying to get rid of us, we will use one of our R.B.R.P._ ”

Pauline visibly shuddered and hugged her waist, grimacing.

They all knew what R.B.R.P meant.

 _Run Bitch Run Plan_.

“ _The R.B.R.P? You know those are just for fun!_ ” She hastily whispered, speaking French too. “ _You made those things up with Jack because you were_ **_bored_ ** _and I was anxious we would panic if teachers were to find us during our nights out._ ”

“ _Why would we even need the R.B.R.P? We are still students, they can’t kill us off that easily…_ ” Jack intervened, avoiding eye contact with the adults – their suspicion was palpable.

Jijii crossed her arms on her chest and leaned in closer to Léo, closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder. With a relaxed smile, she whispered:

“ _Your naivety and faith in people will never cease to amaze me._ ”

Léo sighed loudly and massaged his temples, drawing slow circles and gritting his teeth. Once again, he tried to grab his phone in his pocket and once again, he found nothing there. They had taken their phone and school bags away before putting them in this stupid, windowless truck.

The white lights were enough to see but gave him one hell of a headache. At least, if he had been able to look outside and watch the landscape as they drove who-knows-where, he could have napped or focused his attention on something other than the pain.

The further away they went from the Galaxy Garrison, the more the pounding inside his head intensified. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, head resting against his friend’s – she was small but she was a great cuddle buddy.

“ _Blue… child…_ ” The unknown voice nudged his mind again and a low buzz invaded his head. “ _Blue child… You have to find me… They’re… almost there…_ ”

 _Who the fuck is almost there?_ He groaned internally, his shoulder still as stiff as before.

“ _The enemies… the…_

“Galras?” He finished the sentence out loud, not even realizing he had spoken before noticing that all eyes were on him. He blinked and suddenly, the canon of a gun was pushing against his right temple.

“Where did you learn about the Galras?” A woman asked, grabbing the collar of his uniform and pressing her weapon harder against his forehead.

“I…”

“Stop it! Get the fuck away from him!” Jijii and Jack yelled. The boy kept the other adults away, blocking their way while the young girl stepped closer and pulled the weapon away from her friend’s head.

“The Hell’s wrong with’ya?!” The brunette roared at the woman, almost standing up – she would not allow anyone to hurt her friends.

The adult, taken aback by the sudden vivacity of Jijii, seemed to forget for a second why she had been so prompt to threaten the dark haired boy. But she remembered.

And given the strength she put in the hit she gave to the girl with the butt of her gun, Jijii would remember it too.

The teenagers froze on spot. Pauline hid her mouth behind her hands; Jack watched his friend fall on the floor with wide eyes; and Léo could only hear that annoying buzzing noise now.

Before any of them managed to free themselves from this fear-induced trance, the truck came to an abrupt stop. The adults still watching over them settled back and waited for two bulky soldiers to come and open the backdoor from the outside.

“Get out. Hands behind your back. No talking allowed.” One of them ordered.

Blinded by the light, the three teens covered their eyes with an arm but nodded. Jack went first, closely followed by Pauline. Léo lent a hand to Jijii and helped her up on her feet. He didn’t let go of her hand when exiting the truck – and he would have had no trouble admitting that it was because he was terrified of what was about to happen.

“Hands.”

The glaring of the soldier was threatening enough that the boy did let go in the end, but not without glancing pleadingly at his friend before. Some drops of blood had fallen from her brow bone, and a blue ecchymosis was already blooming on her left temple.

“ _It will be alright._ ” She whispered to him in French, a confident smile lighting up her damaged face although it was clearly difficult for her to stand up still.

Then, they waited.

They didn’t know for how long, but it felt like an eternity. Standing up, hands behind their back, forbidden to speak, in the cold weather. Jijii looked on the verge of puking but no adult did anything to help her get better.

When the Commander arrived, all they wanted to do was to go lie down somewhere and sleep away the events of the day.

“Welcome to your new home. Since you’ve all been selected for this special course, we expect you to have a perfect behaviour and to respect your elders. We would like for each of you to have an interview with our psychologist and then, we will show you your quarters. I am certain that we will all make good work together.”

→ → → → →

Pauline was nervously playing with her hair, her eyes unable to stay fixed on one spot. She was barely listening to what the Commander was talking about, and she only managed to focus her attention on the adult in front of her once the Commander had left.

She was sitting at a metalic table, alone in front of a man wearing a white coat. The room was void of furniture apart from the two chairs and the table. That emptiness, associated to the coldness of the metallic walls and floor, just made the tension in the room heavier.

“Pauline Weanes, sixteen years old, French,” The man went through his paper with a small smile, reading the informations out loud and often peeking at the girl to make sure his informations were not wrong. “In your team, you seem to be the language specialist. Is it true you can speak French, English, Italian, German, and that you’ve started learning Spanish as well?”

“Yes, sir.” She quickly muttered, uneasiness gaining over her rational thoughts. His smile was kind but she couldn’t trust it – not after what they had not hesitated to do to her best friend.

“No need to be this polite with me.” He smiled once more and read a new page of the folder he had about her. “I see that your position in your team was translator and mechanic. Do you enjoy doing this work? Even if we’re in 2145, it’s still rare for girls to apply for such physical job.”

“I do enjoy it a lot, sir. I am good with my hands and repairing stuff makes me feel worthy of being part of my squad.” Pauline was trying to stay calm, but she never stopped playing with her brown curly hair. “Why am I here, sir?”

“Oh, just the usual procedures. Before sending you on a field mission, we have to make sure you are all physically and mentally stable.” He nodded, still smiling. Pauline noticed the way he made sure to fake write on his papers to avoid eye contact with her – she should have been able to hear the annoying screech of his pen against the paper, but there was no such sound.

“Thank you for your time and rest well tonight, Miss Weanes.”

→ → → → →

“Jack Savage, sixteen years old, French,” The man stated, the same way he had done with Pauline. “You’re the engineer and programer of your team, am I right?”

“Y-Yes sir…” Jack gulped audibly, nervously scratching at the back of his neck. He usually was good at keeping his calm during interviews, but the stare of this man made his usual composure break.

“Do you like your position in the team? Your last IQ tests revealed you were one of the best cadets we’ve had in decades… Why did you refuse to skip a year and direct access to your last year of Garrison?”

“I…” He lowered his gaze and his hand stopped mid-scratch, mouth slightly opened as his brain was assaulted by a billion of thoughts at once. “I wanted to stay with my friends. They boost my confidence up and I think that by skipping two grades, I would then lack teamwork experience.”

“But don’t you miss your baby sister?”

The man hit the nail right on the head; it hurt. Jack felt a painful sting in his heart that he had done his best to ignore for two years.

No student was allowed to go back home before their final graduation, and thus, from the day they had first entered the Garrison. That is also why the team they formed, the bonds they made, were so important. Teammates and roommates were like a second family – one that would temporarily replace the one they were forbidden to see in  flesh and bone.

When he had learned that he was going to have a baby sister, Jack had shed tears. Tears of sadness when it should have been happiness.

After all, he had only seen her in video conferences with his family, and he was dying to meet her.

“O-Of course b-but…” He whimpered and took a long breath in. “I-I want to make her proud. I will be one of the best engineers and programmers of the world when I graduate… She’s my biggest motivation. I will do it for her. And one day, I will take her to space with me. And together, we will travel and explore the universe.”

The man wrote something down and smiled, as if Jack had said exactly what he had wanted to hear.

“Thank you for your time and rest well tonight, Mister Savage.”

→ → → → → 

“Léo Alzavola, sixteen years old, French,”

The more Léo stared at the man, the more persuaded he was that his friends had gone through the same exact conversation a few minutes ago. His migraine was getting worse and he just wanted to lie down and sleep the pain away – the annoyingly boring tone of the psychologist just made him want to screech at him like a pterodactyl.

“I believe that you’re the pilot of your team. And still, I see that in one of the surveys you filled out at the beginning of the year, you said that you weren’t cut for the role of leader. Why is that?”

The dark haired boy frowned, arms firmly crossed over his chest. He mumbled, now staring at an invisible spot on the perfectly clean metallic table in front of him.

“I don’t like responsibilities. That’s all.”

“Do you feel like people are putting too much pressure on you? Did your teammates say anything negative to you?”

“What? No! They’re the best!” Immediately, he denied any possibility. “I just am not good at handling the safety of others and taking decisions when things start to go wrong…” His voice trembled.

Weirdly, the strange woman’s voice he had been hearing since yesterday started purring – why was it so soothing?

“But your team did great during the crash simulation. It was even qualified as ‘excellent’ by the teachers. How do you explain it?” The psychologist was now staring at him, his cold smile sending shivers down Léo’s spine. The boy gulped and widened his eyes; he had no difficulty remembering that day.

It was in grade 8 – each team had had to go through a simulation test, where an incident would happen and they would have to find the problem and fix it. In the end, all teams but theirs crashed. They had been the only one that had managed to actually land. Their team was the only one that would have survived has it all been real.

And it had not been thanks to him.

He had panicked and lost it. The loud alarms still rang so loudly in his mind that it woke him up at night, screaming and falling from the bunk bed he shared with Jack. He had been so terrified of losing his crew – his friends. He didn’t care that it was a simulation; it had felt way too real. The alarms had numbed his mind and the red flashing lights had made him lose his capacity to establish a plan.

The soothing purr took over his mind once more – he could breathe again.

“Ji-... Julie. My friend Julie yelled at us and took command of the ship.” His smile wasn’t big, but its warmth reached his eyes. Léo relaxed his shoulders and tilted his head, the purring in his head growing louder. “She can be quite convincing when she wants to. Trust me, you don’t want to make her mad. And if she yells at you to do something, you obey.”

“Isn’t she just the co-pilot?”

“Don’t reduce her to that! Without her, our team wouldn’t have made it this far. She is the one who motivates us and cheers us up!”

The teenager bared his teeth at the psychologist and the purring turned into a low growl. Nevertheless, the man only nodded with a satisfied smile and wrote something down.

Léo had been ready to fight whatever argument the man was going to answer him with, and was left hanging when the adult stayed silent. The door opened swiftly and two soldiers grabbed him by the shoulders, lifting him up on his feet.

“Thank you for your time and rest well tonight, Mister Alzavola.”

→ → → → →

“Julie Teerah Eterna, fifteen years old, French, co-pilot and self-proclaimed ‘nurse’ of your team. You’re also known for your lack of respect for the rules and your… ability to make up cunning tricks to avoid being expelled.”

“Woah congrats, you know how to read!”

The genuine grin she wore made the man wince. Great – she was glad she had chosen to wear this mask out of the feel-based masks collection she had in stock. The pounding in her head would soon be unbearable, but she still had some time.

And hey, if she ended up puking on his perfectly waxed shoes? It’d be a fortunate stroke of serendipity.

“Your teammate, mister Alzavola, praised your competences during a simulation…” The man started off, quickly interrupted by the short girl’s laugh. “Why are you laughing?”

“Because he is always so insecure, my dear _Teal_... I know which simulation you talked about to make him say that. Trust me, you shouldn’t believe him. There’s a reason why he is the pilot and not me.” She assured with a grin.

“It’s funny, it is exactly what I thought too.” A cold smile appeared on the man’s lips as soon as Jiji’s left hers. She was now making her usual ‘bitch-resting-face’, her expression screaming _try me_. “You see, I do not even understand why you are still part of this program. Your grades in scientific classes are average, your piloting skills are great but you are a slow learner, and… well, basically, you’re replaceable. Why have you not dropped out yet?”

“To make people like you tear out their hair.”

The shit-eating grin was back on her face, and she could guess from the man’s glare that he wanted to make her pay for her boldness.

The psychologist understood that if he was to strike, he had to do it hard.

“We all thought that after Scognamiglio’s and Seren’s death, you would have gone away to mourn them.”

_Ouch, you bitch ass._

“It seems that I’m stronger than what you believed. Isn’t it a great quality for a cadet?”

“It is actually very pitiful from a cadet to refuse accepting their honorable death. I bet that you were even more fond of those boys than what the rumors had implied.”

The pounding in her head, caused by her wound, seemed bland compared to that of her heart. She carefully judged the options that they had lain in front of her with this interview and threw them all away. She was going to screw with that guy’s mind the same way he had done with hers.

Right before he was to have spoken, seemingly wanting to tell her off with whatever courtesy he had prepared, she had leaned forward, putting her arms on the table and resting her chin onto one of her hands.

“Why do you guys feel the need to interview us if it’s only to get rid of us tomorrow?”

“We do not plan such thing, miss Teerah Eterna.” He smiled and she mirrored his expression.

“Really? I’m pretty much certain that the Commander intends to have all of us killed and pretend afterwards that an ‘unfortunate event’ happened during this so called field experience course.”

The psychologist blanched. He opened his mouth but she cut him off again.

“You know, like what happened with Scognamiglio and Seren. Well, their mission was not a man-induced fail. But the following ones, in the other Galaxy Garrison programs? It totally was. Isn’t that why Oceania stated that they would rather lose sponsors than send children off to their death?”

“How do you…”

“I have my sources.” She flashed him a new grin and, seeing that no one had opened the door to interrupt them, she guessed that the man had not given yet the signal to put an end to their interview. “So, mister… whatever. Tell me more about this ‘special course’. Why is it so rushed?”

“I-It is not…” He stuttered, stiff on his chair.

“ _Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!_ ” She complained sarcastically. “It was way too sudden. What happened for you guys to suddenly plan this course and not even allow us to contact our fam-”

“Scognamiglio is alive.”

The news took her breath away.

What?

No…

How?

Her eyes must have been wide enough, given the precipitation with which he bent forward and quickly whispered to her.

“Scognamiglio is alive. He crashed on Earth three days ago, in an African desert. We retrieved him – after all, he still belongs to the E.G.G. rather than the A.G.G – but no one managed to make him talk. He’s in a bad state and refuses to cooperate. They drugged him and moved him here, in this facility. No one but the people who found him and the E.G.G knows. The only words that left his mouth, for now, were: ‘ _they’re coming, the galras, they’re after it, after Voltron_ ’. It’s all gibberish... He was so dehydrated and wounded it’s a miracle he’s still alive!”

Jijii rubbed her temples while looking at the man’s eyes, making sure he was not lying. He looked terrified. Of whom? Them? Her? She couldn’t tell.

She pushed behind her ear the lock of hair that was usually in front of her right eye and her eyes glowed with a bright new resolution.

“Tell me where he is and why we’re here.”

“In the furthest building; it looks like a simple boathouse but it’s a lab’.” He rushed his explanation, cold sweat running down his face.

They heard the lock of the door click and both of them froze. Quickly, he grabbed his papers and feigned writing on it. They exchanged a last glance.

“You’ve all been chosen because your team doesn’t foolishly believe everything the higher-ups say. You’re all great, amazing cadets; but your capacity of thinking differently from what you’re taught frightens them. _A lot_. They’re going to use you to make Scognamiglio talk and then…”

All of a sudden, the door opened and two guards came in, grabbing Jijii more violently than they had been to Léo. She groaned, glaring at them. The bulkier of the two hit her where she had taken a blow earlier already. Her vision darkened.

Everything was fading away, darkness taking over so quickly that she almost didn’t hear the psychologist speak, anxiety making his voice throb.

“Thank you for your time and rest well tonight, miss Teerah Eterna.”

→ → → → →

When she came back to her senses, it was morning already.

She groaned painfully as she sat up on a terribly uncomfortable bed and looked around. Her sight was still blurry and darker on the outer sides, but she could make up most of the room.

“Jijii!”

Someone rushed to her side and cupped her face nervously, panic in their voice.

“Lucifer damn it, _Teal_!” She backed away, blinking and putting hastily her hands on her ears, the ringing in her head making everything spin. “No need to scream…”

“Yes, _need_ to scream!” He and Pauline countered, falling on the bed by her sides.

“They brought you back unconscious and half of your face was covered in blood!” The brunette explained as she curled her hair around her fingers, more worried than ever.

“I’m fine!” Jijii grumbled and shook her head to prove them wrong. Sure, now she was sick, but her smile hid the truth real well. “Wound to the head are those that bleed the most.”

“But then you didn’t wake up!” Léo added, clutching onto her arm. “They said you had just been ‘slightly punished’ because of your ‘insubordination’... the hell were they talking about? What happened?”

She frowned as she tried to remember. She had made fun of the psychologist and then…

“... and then he told me.” She whispered, bringing a hand in front of her mouth.

“Told you what?”

She jumped on her feet with the biggest smile ever, completely ignoring the ringing and pounding in her head. That was certainly not the reaction her friends had expected – even after all these years spent together, Jijii’s randomness still surprised them.

“I know why we’re here! I know what they intend to use us for!” She announced happily, almost jumping where she stood.

“Why are you so happy to know we’re going to be killed?” Jack whined, sitting on the floor, legs crossed.

“It has to do with Eliott.”

“No shit Sherlock.” Léo rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air dramatically.

“It has to do with the fact that Eliott is alive and in this facility.”

Her grin grew bigger and she danced her way to the bed her friends were still sitting on, jumping onto it like the child she still was. Since none of them had anything to answer to that, she went on.

“He crashed on Earth. He refuses to talk but it seems he’s tried to get away a lot and has been talking ‘bout something that sounded like gibberish to the higher-ups.” She was suddenly crossed legs on the bed too and grabbing Léo’s shoulder, facing him with a confident smile on her face. “Buddy. They went mad when you said the word ‘Galras’ – yes, I still remember that. Is your head still hurting?”

“It hasn’t stopped since the announcement…”

“It’s been worse since we’ve gotten here?”

“Yes…?”

“You’ve heard that woman-like voice again?”

“Wait,” Jack interrupted, turning to them, mouth hanging open, “what voice? Léo, what’s going on?”

“Dear Jack, I think our dear captain _Teal_ over here may have gotten his hands on the only clues we will need to escape from here.” Jijii whispered, looking into Léo’s eyes with pride. “Léo… does the word ‘Voltron’ ring any bell to you?”

The black haired boy wanted to answer no.

But the ecstatic roar in his mind convinced him otherwise.

“The woman voice keeps making wild-kitty-like noises. It’s disturbing.” He blurted without any filter.

“Happy kitty sounds or angry kitty sounds?”

“ _Jijii!_ That’s not the point!” Jack and Pauline countered, exasperated.

“Happy kitty.” Léo nodded, pouting and frowning – the voice was now purring like a very cheerful motor.

“Perfect. Now all we have to do is find Eliott and get the fuck away from here.”

“Woah, great. How do we do that?”

“I don’t know Jack, can’t you hack into something like you usually do?”

“With what? They took all of our stuffs away!”

“Oh.”

Jijii frowned sadly, still holding Léo’s shoulders. He put a hand on her arm and they exchanged a glance, similar to the one they used to do when they ran simulations together.

“We’ll improvise then.” Jijii grinned and got off from the bed, standing up and raising a hand before Pauline or Jack spoke again. “Listen here. We’ve got a few trap cards in our hands: we know so much more than what they think! And we are prepared. They want to get rid of us because, unlike other students, we do not trust and accept everything they do or say as if it was the only possible truth out there. We’re the team that trained the most at the E.G.G, and with our dear genius Jack,” the boy flushed red and she winked at him – he was so cute. “With Jack by our side, we’ve got at least five plans that can get us outta here. Pauline can translate so many things and, let’s admit it, with her mechanic skills she will know where to hit to break a maximum of stuff!”

Pauline smiled weakly but relaxed, nodding along with her friend’s stupid ideas.

“And,” Léo added, now standing up too. “with the voices I hear in my head and your randomness, they will never be able to guess which step we’re gonna take next.”

They grinned at each other and high fived happily, before being crushed in Jack’s bear hug along with Pauline. The four of them laughed and held onto each other tightly.

The adults had all expected them to be defeated – that they would fear them and accept what was going to happen to them.

Once again, the teenagers were about to prove them wrong.

 _You’re going to fear us,_ Jijii thought ruthlessly, _you’ve picked the wrong team to mess with._

 

→ → → → →

 

A few minutes later, soldiers came for them. The youngsters stayed calm and did their best to look uneasy and anxious like they were supposed to be.

The four of them walked in line and following the strict rhythm of the woman who was leading them. The weapons attached on her hips made Jack’s and Pauline’s faked uneasiness much more real – they truly hoped they were going to be able to escape this.

They traveled quickly, the windy weather outside was freezing them to the bone. They were only wearing their uniform after all, and had not eaten nor drank anything since yesterday morning. Of course, they had been offered diner and breakfast – but Jack had threw it all away as soon as possible, claiming to his friend that it could all be poisoned, or maybe worse. Pauline and Léo knew he watched too many conspiracy theory videos with his girlfriend, but the two teens had agreed on the fact that Jack was – maybe, just maybe – not making things up about this, for once.

The buildings were all terribly boring to Léo – he spent most of the walk listening to the purring voice in his head and the words the woman-like voice was still trying to articulate. He could hear the usual soothing sounds of the sea, they must not have been that far from the coast. The salty smell was comforting to him, as it reminded him of his family, back in France and in Sicilia.

When he thought of family, the noises in his head intensified, as if the purring was melting into a soothing, familiar melody.

So he whistled along, smiling, the gusts of wind covering the sounds. Only Jijii heard him – he knew because she had started whistling too.

They only came to a stop when they reached the end of the military facility. Two soldiers stepped away from them and simultaneously put a hand on a weird looking machine. It made a beeping noise and they heard the mechanism of the door activate, slowly opening the gigantic gates in front of them.

Jijii had been right: what had looked like a simple boathouse was a giant laboratory. Everything was blindingly white, from the walls and floor to the coats and uniforms people were wearing.

“ _What the Heaven is this fuckity angely place?_ ”

The guards were so astonished by Jijii’s weird mutters that they didn’t even manage to react to it. They pressed the teenagers to move on and lead them in the corridors.

Jijii smirked; she knew that she didn’t have to try too hard to remember all the turns they had taken in here. Because Jack would remember. He always did.

A new door opened and instead of a new purely white room, they found a really dark one. Only one light was turned on, far away on the high ceiling. Adults were standing at the entrance of the room, but the cadets could only see one thing.

_Eliott._

Eliott Scognamiglio was in the middle of the room and tied up to a chair, right under the light. His face was thinner. His eyes were closed but they could all see the dark bags under it, giving away his tiredness. In the heavy silence, they could hear his slow, hoarse breathing.

 _Blue child,_ the voice grumbled ito Léo’s mind, _this one… family. Family has to get back home._

He wanted so hard to ask what was all of this about. What did it mean? Eliott was a friend, not family? Which home? What was going on?

“Let him go.”

Léo blinked the questions away from his mind and focused on Jijii. She had taken a step forward, and her growl had been more of an order than a request. A wild fire was burning in her eyes, and she wouldn’t hesitate to release it if she had to.

“No one gave you the right to speak.” A soldier threatened, pointing his rifle on her.

“Wait,” The Commander smiled and raised a hand, staring at the young girl. “Cadet Teerah Eterna, if you want to talk, you’ll have to cooperate with us.”

“Cooperate?”

The three other teenagers exchanged a glance; the game was starting.

“Yes, Miss.” The adult confirmed, crossing his hands behind his back and smiling at her. “As you can see, cadet Scognamiglio is back on Earth…”

“Even though you told the whole planet that he was _dead_.”

“... and he has some information we would like to know about. But he refuses to cooperate.”

“So what? Why are we here?” Jijii asked, taking one more step in Eliott’s direction. Her gaze was fixed on him – he was so close yet so far.

As she was doing that and keeping the attention on herself, no one noticed how the other teens slowly moved away from each other.

“You’ve shown us how cunning you could be already, miss. Don’t play us. You certainly have an idea already as to why we’ve brought all of you here.”

“You want us gone. But before that, you want us to convince Eliott to speak to you.” She guessed after a few seconds, as if she hadn’t understood that long ago already.

Those seconds were precious for her friends.

More weapons were raised and locked on her.

 _Just a few more seconds_.

“This is indeed what we want. Children like you are… a threat to the community.” The Commander started, now unable to look away from the bold girl. “A good soldier is one who will obey without questioning the system. But you keep disobeying; you keep finding ways to work things out, instead of sticking to what you’re being taught.”

“Is that a reference to the last flight simulation we did?” She joked openly, snapping her fingers.

“Well, you did decide to take a path that had not been approved by the teachers. Mister Savage hacked into the system of your engine. Miss Weanes followed his orders and transformed your motors, boosting up their power. And Mister Alzavola followed the path _you_ had designed instead of the one the teachers had made up for you.”

“It was a stupid, risky path.” She countered without a hint of hesitation. “We would have had to do maneuvers Léo didn’t master yet – because those are only learned in grade 12 – and there were too many dark spots on the map. Being a good co-pilot is finding a way out of the path other people creates for you.”

The Commander laughed at that, making her frown.

“This is a pretty idea. It does justify your rebellious behaviour rather well. But how is such a screwed up way of thinking going to help you now?”

“Now? Well, I only need one word to answer that...”

It was her turn to smirk.

“ _Checkmate_.”

All of a sudden, the three teens planted an elbow right into the face of the soldiers who were the closer to them. They didn’t let the harsh sounds of bones breaking hinder them and used the confusion to steal weapons from their enemies, knocking out the wounded ones.

Jijii jumped down and rolled on the floor as she was being shot at, then hastily got back up on her own two feet. She knew she only had to hang on for a few seconds and her friends would have her back.

She barely avoided a bullet in the head, taking an abrupt and random turn left. She zigzaged her way in the room, never thinking of what she was going to do next so that the soldiers couldn’t guess it.

The gunshots lessened and the room grew quieter when the teenagers took action. They had not only stolen guns and rifles – smoke bombs were precious little things, truly useful, really.

Jack snatched one and threw it right into one of the enemies’ face. The man had not taken a breath, yet the smoke was choking him and hiding the cadets behind a big wall of fog.

The young boy rejoined Pauline near the door and put a knee on the floor, loading the rifle he had just put against his shoulder, ready to shoot at anyone coming their way.

Léo ran to Jijii’s side and gave her a hunting knife. Together, they cut the ropes that were tying down their friend. They then both wrapped an arm around Eliott’s waist and put one of his arms around their neck before lifting him up. They exchanged a glance and sheepish smile, nodded, and went back to their friends as fast as possible.

“If you’ve got him, now would be a good time to go!!” Pauline yelled at them, her voice much higher than usual, all while shooting in the knees of the soldiers that were getting out of the fog screen.

Léo and Jijii got their unconscious friend out of the room and the other two quickly closed the doors before the enemies managed to get out of it. Jack ran in front of the defenseless three and Pauline shot at the panel that activated the opening of the door, making sure they would not get out for a long time.

Of course, they had not made it up to the end of two corridors when the alarms started blazing.

“Everyone remembers the R.B.R.P?” Jijii chuckled.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s get out of this place. We’ve been trained like soldiers, it is time to fight like it.”

Only Léo and she grinned at that, the other two were terrified of the outcome of the day. But since they were going to die if they didn’t escape, they had nothing to lose.

Quickly after, soldiers and scientists ran into them. Jijii dropped Eliott, leaving to Léo the task of holding him, and grabbed her brand new hunting knife. She unexpectedly jumped into the melee and stabbed the hands and shoulders of the people next to her – they would not die, but they certainly wouldn’t be able to use a weapon.

She had grown so used to simulation battles that she didn’t fear the shot taken by her friends. She knew they were great in long range battle. She knew their hit would not touch her. Thus, she moved freely and attacked anyone getting in their way.

They had called her ‘just a co-pilot’ – she was so much more than that. Battle simulations were only for students in grade 11 and 12. She had gone and trained secretly with Yoann and Eliott while they were still at the E.G.G. but no higher-up had heard of it. It was an advantage she played off real well against them.

“The door won’t open!” Léo screamed out, Pauline protecting him and Eliott. “And it’s too robust to just break it!”

“Well, when the door won’t work…” Jijii mumbled, rolling on the floor and grabbing a few grenades from the belt of a fallen soldier. “You gotta make another one!”

She ran to the door and raised a hand – fist closed, open-closed, open. Her team walked away and they covered each other’s back, kneeling on the floor and huddling together.

The soldiers saw an opportunity, thinking the cadets were trapped – when really, they were the one about to suffer.

Jijii fixed what she had stolen on the wall near the door and ran as quickly as possible, jumping behind a few storage boxes right on time. The blast blew away their enemies along with the wall.

It was funny what a few grenades could do.

“R.B.R.P!”

The teens reunited and used the smoke to hide from the adults’ eyes, literally running for their lives. They were out of breath and exhausted – but they were so close to getting away from the E.G.G.

They only had to hold on. They could do it. They would do it.

“Where to?!”

“Ocean!”

Léo held tighter on his friend, helped once more by Jijii, and rushed forwards. He had no rational reason to go there, but the voice that had invaded his head since yesterday had somehow persuaded him to take this direction.

Everyone followed, glad not to have to think about it uselessly. They were almost there. Almost. The racket around them was ceaseless but they had manage to get away from direct shooting distance.

As they approached the cliff, a new problem arose.

“Where to, now?”

The ocean was far below, and around them, it was but flat grounds. No trees to hide behind. No hill. No city. Nothing. They were surrounded by a cliff and nothingness.

Great.

“We gotta go down.” Léo stated, taking new steps forward.

“We gotta _what_?” Jack yelped, still breathless. “If we fall we die! And it’s too abrupt for us to climb down!”

“We gotta…”

The dark haired boy stopped, his mind suddenly silent. The roaring had been so overwhelming since yesterday that its sudden absence left him worried. Jijii sent him a glance; he lowered his gaze, brows furrowing.

And he saw it.

The unexpected path.

 _It’s like it has been made for us._ He wondered thoughtfully.

“Let’s get down.” He was about to smile but stopped, glaring at Jijii. “I swear that if you say ‘to business to defeat the Huns’, I will punch you. In the face. With your knife.”

“Aye aye Captain _Teal_!”

The four of them laughed, Eliott still knocked out. They would have worried about him, if they had the time – but it was a luxury they didn’t have for now.

The first to walk down that path on the border of the cliff was Jack, who was giving Eliott the piggyback ride of his life; too bad that he’d not remember it. Right behind him, Pauline was making sure he stayed balanced on his feet.

“Almost there?” Léo asked Jijii with a worried smile, a hand on her arm.

“Almost there.” She answered confidently, holding his stare.

However, life was never that easy for them. And each time they believed that they could finally be at peace, destiny proved them wrong.

Léo was the first to react, noticing the soldier who was pointing his rifle at them. He pushed Jijii out of the way for her to avoid the bullet. But he had been much closer to the edge of the cliff than he had believed.

One wrong step was all it took for him to suddenly disappear.

Jijii didn’t even notice she had screamed his name. She had jumped back on her feet and had tried to hold onto him.

Another bullet was fired – this one went right through her left shoulder. This time too, she barely noticed the strangled screech that escaped her throat.

Alerted by the gunshots, Pauline had retraced her path. Seeing that one of her friends was missing and that the other was lying in a puddle of blood on the floor, she acted without thinking. She knew she only had a few seconds of rationality before the panic kicked in.

She grabbed a grenade onto the belt she had stolen at some point and threw it to the one who had dared to shoot at her friends.

She didn’t care if he died; she didn’t care about the consequences. All she cared about in this instant was that that bastard had hurt her friends.

She covered her ears with her hands and turned away when the bomb exploded. She then wasted no more time, rushing to Jijii’s side. She made sure she was still breathing and grabbed her the same way they had done with Eliott, holding her up and forcing her to walk.

“Come on! Help a little, Ju’!” She groaned at her.

 _Tired tired tired_ , sang her mind restlessly.

“El…? And… Léo? Léo fell… he fell… gotta… help…”

“Later. We gotta hide for now. We will find Léo later.” Pauline promised as she walked down the narrow path of the cliff, all while trying to help her best friend walk too.

Jijii nodded faintly. She was too numb to concentrate on things that were not immediate.

They were progressing slowly. Really slowly. They had had to stop a few times, when they had heard the soldier searching for them up on the edge of the cliff. Jijii almost fell a few times, half-fainting.

They made it to the end of the path – painfully, but they had done it and that was all that mattered. The girls entered a cave that was not visible from outside, unless you took that dangerous path they had been on.

They were safe. For now, they were hidden in that safe haven, only a few meters up from the ocean.

Jack had lain Eliott down and Jijii quickly allowed herself to fall by his side. She closed her eyes and weakly grabbed the hand of her friend, who had finally returned from what must have been Hell. Her hands were shaking and she couldn’t feel the pain anymore.

Everything was cold and dark, but it was fine, she didn’t care.

“Where is Léo?”

She heard Jack but even then, the feeling of panic stayed stuck on the other side of an invisible wall.

“Pauline what happened? Why is Jijii bleeding? Is she badly hurt? Where is Léo?”

She heard her best friend sobbing and breaking down. Soon after, Jack’s cries followed.

But she couldn’t care less.

Everything was cold and far, far away.

She closed her eyes and her grip on Eliott’s hand lessened again, indulging herself in Morpheus’ arms.

She couldn’t care less.

Because when she had eventually found back a member of her family, she had lost another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand that's how chapter 2 ends! Were you surprised? Did you like it? were there some moments you enjoyed more than others?
> 
> If you have any questions, don't hesitate asking! and still, do you have better ideas of who is going to be which paladin? ;)
> 
> You can also follow me on [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jijii.teerah/) or [tumblr](http://jijii-production.tumblr.com), I'd love to chat with you ! :D


	3. Kick ass, Go to Space, Represent the human race

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the precedent chapter: The team found Eliott and managed to escape the E.G.G! But Léo fell from the cliff and Jijii was shot, thinking she lost one member of her small family again...
> 
> Now? The team has to take action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Here goes another chapter, I hope you will enjoy it and yes, I promise, they're going to go to space soon ;)

Léo had never liked being woken up suddenly.

Hence, waking up because of a thundering lion roar definitely became the number one way he hated to be woken up with. And the fact that the first breath he took made him feel as if his lungs were on fire just made it worse.

He coughed violently and rolled to be on his knees, fingers scratching at the floor beneath him, searching for anything to clutch onto.

“The hell…”

His voice was hoarse but at least it was operative. He took a long breath in through his nose, keeping his eyes tightly shut. Slowly, he made a list of what had happened before he had lost consciousness.

They had ran away from the facility and had freed Eliott. Then they had found a narrow path on the edge of the cliff. He had felt that something was calling for him – he had to go down, he _had to_. But some soldier had caught up to them. And he had tried to protect his friend but had forgotten how close he was to the edge of the cliff.

And then, he had fallen.

“Wait wait wait!” He babbled, getting up on his feet and pacing back and forth all while staring at the floor and moving his arms accordingly to his mood. “That cliff was like, what, five hundreds meters high? There’s so many high cliffs in this damn country it’s… No, no Léo, not the point – _shouldn’t you be dead?_ ” He asked himself, stopping for a second.

“Am I dead?”

A roar.

“Why do I feel pain then?” The boy kept rambling, arms crossed on his chest but freeing them as soon as he started talking again. “I thought that nothing would hurt once you were dead!”

Another roar.

“I know right? Damn it, I-I probably drowned…”

A soft purring.

“What? No way! I can’t possibly have survived this fall. I mean, look around! We’re underwater!”

He finally stopped and rose his head, mouth hanging open.

“... We’re _underwater?_ ” He repeated, eyes wide open and hands still up in the air in a _what-the-fuck_ gesture.

A wild roar answered him again and this time, he truly _looked_ at the one who had been talking to him for a while now. He was deep down underwater – the wet heavy sand beneath his feet and the lack of light made it clear.

There was an almost transparent sphere around him and… what happened to be a giant mechanical blue lion. The dark haired boy blinked once, twice, and made a face – a very funny one at that.

The lion tilted its head the same way, mirroring the boy’s action.

“Are you,” he gulped, squinting his eyes and pointing a finger at the blue sentient robot. “Are you the voice that’s been invading my head those past few days?”

A happy purr resonated in his mind, making him jump.

“Okay! ‘kay, that was totally you and totally freaking creepy.”

More purring.

He sighed deeply, putting his hands on his hips and pouting. He didn’t want to accept any of this. He would rather accept that he was dead than any of this – he just wanted a normal life! And death!

“Guess that my so called ‘normal life’ was long gone from the moment I became friends with Jijii, huh?” He wondered out loud, looking around him.

The bluish sphere was seemingly protecting him from the pressure he should have felt so far underwater – and probably provided him the air he needed all while protecting him from the water itself. He rubbed his throat, lost in thoughts.

How was he still alive?

“ _Can… tell you… all…_ ” The woman voice whispered so lovingly Léo almost felt it nuzzle his mind gently.

He took a hesitant step forward and slowly reached out his hand toward the lion, which bent down like a big cat, head resting on its paws. The instant his skin came in contact with the cold metal, a series of images flashed before his eyes.

He saw himself falling and be caught by the blue lion, which had just exited the dark waters and flown to him. He saw himself pass out when he entered the sentient robot’s mouth but caught a glimpse of the elastic pillow like material he had landed on – well, that explained why he wasn’t already dead.

The lion had then sank back into the sea, until it had landed on the ground, deep underwater. It had opened its mouth and let Léo roll down on the sand, the spherical barrier around them both protecting the young boy from what could possibly kill him down there – and there were lots of threats in the sea.

“You saved me?” He muttered, slowly caressing the lion’s face. “Why did you save me?”

“ _Blue… Child…_ ”

“You still have not explained what that means. I ain’t a child and I ain’t blue – _you’re_ blue!” He sassed out of habit.

A deep laugh echoed in his mind. He coughed, red as a tomato, and tried to get back on track. He took a long breath in and patted the lion again.

He flashed it a mischievous grin.

“Okay, I am going to need some explanations here. So tell me, Blue Kitty… what’s up?”

 

→ → → → →

 

“... we wait. Period.”

Jijii blinked slowly, chasing the dark dots before her eyes away sleepily. She still felt really cold and her left shoulder hurt like hell, but she was surrounded by comforting smells. The girl had always relied on details such as those to make it through the day during her childhood. She was not going to hesitate – she would have no regrets tricking her brain into thinking everything was fine, once again.

 _Sorry brainy but you’re easily fooled. Gotta take advantage of it, you stupid thing._ She thought with a smile, waiting a few more seconds before opening her eyes and sitting up.

She was turning her back to the others and could hear the fire cracking. She knew Pauline was here – she recognised her faint odor of violets and honey, but also that typical petrichor smell. But so was Jack – his smell was that of olive, antiseptics and gunpowder.

However, there was one smell that woke her brain up abruptly: a balanced mix of cinnamon, lemon and sea salt breeze.

 _Eliott_.

Jijii moved so fast she almost fell back on the floor. It didn’t matter because what – _who_ – mattered was right beside her.

“Eliott!” She yelled, her trembling voice betraying her emotions. She gave no time to the boy and hugged him as tight as she could without whimpering in pain. “You’re here. You’re back with us. I knew you were not dead – I never once believed them. I _knew_ you would be back.”

“I’m back.” He assured with a deep voice, returning the hug and putting his head on hers. “I’m back, and the first thing I see when I’m finally out of that damned place is you in a puddle of blood.”

“I guess old habits are hard to kill? But hey, so am I.” She joked, her voice muffled against his shoulder. “Did they tell you what happened?”

“Yes, we told him!” Pauline answered, coming closer to them.

Jijii took a look at her – tears had fallen on her face, their tracks still visible because of the dirt that was covering her skin. She looked terribly tired and the bags under her eyes were proof of the anxiety and worries she had been accumulating. Behind her, Jack seemed no better. His red puffy eyes betrayed him – he had probably cried too – and his neck was covered in scratch marks.

They had both been left on their own. A knife of guilt pierced Jijii’s heart. It was hers and Léo’s responsibility to take care of them. They were the pilot and co-pilot – they were in charge of their teammate’s security and they had failed them.

“Eliott refused to tell us what happened to him.” Jack added with a sullen glare. “And since we have nothing but a few weapons with us, I couldn’t even give you real first-aid… I cut off a part of my vest and used it to cover your wound and lessen the blood loss, but it’ll only do this much. We have to get out of here and quick.”

“We have to wait.” Eliott hissed back.

 _Oh_ – now Jijii understood that the boys were back to the conversation she had woken up to. She shook her head and sat on her heels, not letting go of Eliott’s waist.

Eventually, she looked at him. His hair was longer than when he had left – it was curlier and messier, and had lost its shiny blond aspect. It was more tern. But maybe it was just the lighting? And even though his eyes were still a one of a kind gold, it had lost its warmth – its childish, innocent gleam.

He was still wearing his left earring and black pearled bracelet – two jewels offered by his best friends. However, he was now bearing a fair amount of cuts and wounds. Or at least, that’s what she could guess from what his shattered clothes revealed. His pants, long sleeve shirt and jacket were rags and he didn’t even have shoes.

Jijii could bet that he now had invisible scars too – psychological ones that’d haunt him for life.

“Eliott. We gotta move.” She decided to answer, raising her gaze to meet his. “Léo is somewhere outside and we gotta find him.”

“There’s a storm outside, and the soldiers of the E.G.G are still searching for us.” He replied, frowning.

She listened to the wind and rain howling outside. If not for the fire they had managed to lit, they would all have frozen by now. A shiver ran down her spine as she realized the chaotic state the ocean might be in as they were talking.

“One more reason to go then. We need to find Léo; we do not leave family behind, you know it.” She challenged, slowly getting away from him. She pressed her right hand against her left shoulder – the humidity in the air was not doing it any good. “Léo fell. He saved me and fell. He’s a good swimmer, he may have managed to get out of the water and he may be closer than we think. I’m certain he made it out of the water.”

“Ju’... You know it’s not possible that he survived. Please, don’t make it worse for us…” Pauline begged, tears blurring her vision once again today. “Even if the fall didn’t kill him, he must have been too badly hurt not to drown…”

“Believe whatever you want but no corpse, no proof.”

Jijii glared at her friends, anger taking over. She had repeated that very same sentence so many times after Yoann’s and Eliott’s disappearance – she couldn’t believe she had to use it when talking about Léo now.

She got up on her feet despite the striking pain in her left shoulder. Taking support on the wall, she ignored her friend’s comment on her physical state and slowly walked toward the entrance of the cave. She could feel the blood that had dried on her skin crack gently, in total opposition with the mushy, soggy sensation she got from the damp clothes that covered her wound. Blood was still slowly dripping from it, leaving dark stains on the floor.

“It’s not just the E.G.G who’s after us.” Eliott eventually admitted, walking to her and putting a hand on hers, lowering his gaze. “On Kerberos, we didn’t crash. I’m not such a bad pilot, thank you very much. We were caught by an alien species.”

He now had everyone’s attention. Even Jijii was looking at him seriously, leaning a little bit more on the wall by her side, ready to hear the full story. Pauline laughed, uneasy and scared.

“You’re joking, right?”

“Do I look like it?”

“Well you always have a bitch resting face on, even when you’re sarcastic so…”

He shot her a deadly glare.

“... So I had better not finish this sentence.” She gulped with a scared smile.

“You guys were literally abducted by aliens? What were they like? Were there many of them? What is it like out there?” Jack couldn’t help but assail his friend with questions, his curiosity taking over. Jijii smirked at that – she remembered Léo telling her that Jack and his girlfriend would video chat for hours while watching conspiracies theories together.

“It is not like you imagined.” Eliott said coldly, avoiding everyone’s stares but Jijii’s. “It was brutal. Terrifying. Painful. We were working and a second later we were being attacked by those guys, who fired lasers and weird light beams at us. I… I don’t remember much for now. But those guys? They’re Galras. That’s the name I heard over and over again. Ruled by a king named ‘Zarkon’ – they all seem to follow him like some kind of God like figure.”

“Do you…” Jijii started, searching in herself for strength. “Do you know what happened to Yoann?”

“… No. I have no idea of where he is now. All I remember is us being together for a while and then…” He abuted on his words and grasped Jijii’s hand. He held onto it tightly, shaking. “Then nothing. Only… I only remember pain and screams and blood.”

Jack and Pauline exchanged a look and got up. They slowly rejoined their friends and both carefully put a hand on Eliott’s shoulders. He had never liked physical contacts much. They understood that from now on, it would be even more difficult for him to like those touches, no matter how light.

“And… those people are after us?” Jijii asked, looking at him in the eyes. She wouldn’t be the one to show pity – what they all needed was to go forward, not back.

“Me. After me and a weapon that could supposedly defeat them all.” He corrected with a nod. “I think part of it is here, on Earth. They’re coming to find it and retrieve me – though I have no idea why I would matter so much to them. I believe that this weapon is called ‘Voltron’ or something.”

The three cadets froze. Just as they had done so many times during simulation flights, they exchanged a glance to make sure they had all heard the same thing.

“Hey, I saw that. What is it?” Eliott said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“We… We kind of know that the E.G.G knows about the Galras and Voltron? Well, they heard you talk about it so we don’t know to which extent they know about it but… but it somehow is bad news?” Jack babbled, scratching at his neck nervously.

“Does it really change our plan?” Jijii asked bluntly, yawning. Without the wall to support her, she would already have fallen down on her knees – the cold was making her so sleepy and the blood loss she suffered from explained the uninterrupted dizziness. “I mean… So what? Whatever they know, it doesn’t change a thing for us: we’ve got two smoke bombs, two guns, a rifle, and what, a handful of bullets at best? We’re still wearing our orange uniforms and have nothing to protect ourselves from the shots they will fire at us. So I am asking you again: does it really change anything if they know about the space bitches or not?”

They all stared at her, gobsmacked. She flashed them a weak but proud grin – she was stubborn enough not to let small obstacles like this blurry her mind.

 _Randomly pick a star and follow it until it stops shining._ She reminded herself internally. This piece of advice had helped her make it through the day during the darkest moments of her life. She was thankful her brain now stuck to it like a mantra.

“Fine.” Eliott conceded with a shrug. He then suddenly grabbed her and held her by the waist, carrying her back to where their stuff were. “But we will only follow your plan after the storm has settled a little. You still need to rest and if we go outside now, we won’t see anything. Remember one of the main life-saving rules?”

“A dead rescuer cannot help anyone…” She mumbled grumpily, holding onto her friend’s shoulders to stay stable. She sat down and crossed an arm around her waist, using her right hand to still apply pressure on her left shoulder. “By the way, what do we do if the space bitches disembark on Earth and come after us?”

“Really, Jijii? _Space bitches_?” Jack asked with a tired look, running a hand in his short light brown hair.

“Yeah! Plus we can call ‘em SB and it’s the reverse acronym for bullshit so it’s killing two birds with one stone. Ain’t it a great secret codename?”

Her shit-eating smirk was draining Jack’s energy even more than the stupidities that were leaving her mouth. He gave up trying to reason with her and sat near the fire too, stroking his hands together to warm them. Pauline came near him and she glanced at Eliott and Jijii shyly.

“Guys, d’you really… really think Léo might still be alive?”

“I’m not giving up on him.” Jijii answered firmly, resolution shining in her eyes.

Pauline nodded and hugged her knees against her chest, her head resting over it. Jack told them to wake him up when the rescue mission would start and lay down near the fire. Eliott added some planks of wood to the fire – it was still damp but it was all they had.

Jijii stayed on the floor, head and back resting against the wall behind her, legs outstretched before her. She gazed at the fire sleepily, unable to allow herself some rest. The turmoil in her mind was louder than what she showed on the outside. And still, in that storm of anxious terrified thoughts, her brain was focused on one thing only: _I’m not giving up on him. Ever._

She closed her eyes and let her mind wander aimlessly, searching for as many solutions as she could possibly come up with.

Hours went by as they all waited for the weather to wither away. And when the violent howling of the wind turned into the soothing sound of drizzle, the teenagers knew it was finally time for them to get out and face whatever was waiting for them.

Eliott slowly shook Jack’s shoulder to wake him up and did the same with Pauline, gathering their weapons. He had counted the number of bullets they had while they had been napping.

Jijii rose too, her vision darkening as soon as she was up. She knew her condition was bad. She was freezing and dizzy and felt sick to her stomach – it was all due to the bullet wound in her shoulder. But she was thankful it had not killed her yet and she would take the pain upon herself for now.

“We go out,” she started, taking the lead and grabbing the smoke bombs. “We follow the path up the cliff again. If Léo survived and managed to get out of the water, it is most likely that the E.G.G retrieved him already. Let’s get near the facility and try to get intel before doing anything stupid.”

“This whole thing is stupid though…” Pauline muttered under her breath.

“I heard that.” She paused. “Still, _true_. However, you all know how stupid I am. You should have guessed my plan would be just as dumb.” She smiled at them and went outside, hiding the fear that had nestled itself in a corner of her mind.

The walk back up the cliff happened to be slow. Terribly slow. Everything was slippery and the slightest second of inattention could get them killed. They were not far from the water, but the ocean was still violent and the rocks down there still sharp enough to slay them.

Jijii gulped but kept walking. She wanted to find her friend more than anything.

 _Easy peasy, we find him and we run the fuck away from the Garrison._ She thought and nodded discreetly, trying to convince herself. _As simple as that; we bring him back home and then, whatever happens, it will be alright._

But as she rose her head and beheld a squadron of soldiers waiting for them at the end of the path, she remembered that Destiny had never enjoyed it more than when it messed her plans up.

They stopped and she ordered her friends to stay close from the cliff, back flat against it. Great; now, it would be more difficult for the soldiers to shoot them from where they stood. Jijii took in a deep breath as well as a few seconds to calm the wild beating of her heart.

She stepped forward with a confident smile, making her friends behind her cringe.

“Put your weapons on the floor and nothing will happen to you.” She warned.

She was barely able to stand up, covered in blood and pale as a dead – in a nutshell, not the most convincing person there.

“Are you sure it is not the other way around?” The Commander laughed, safely hidden by his soldiers. “Give yourself up now and we will spare your lives. After some questioning, you will be able to get back home, back to your families. You want to see them, right?”

Jack and Pauline audibly gasped. They had not been home in years. They dreamed of it. It was the thought of going back and making their family proud that had motivated them to hold on for so long in a foreign country.

Jijii all but smiled.

“Oh dear, don't you see? You are the one in trouble here.” Her grin made the soldiers tighten their grip on their weapons. “Aren't you in need of us? If you lose Eliott, you lose your intel about what's going on in space. And if you lose any of us? He will never talk.” She heard Eliott muffle a bitter chuckle and opened her arms, tilting her head. “So let's try it again: put your weapons down, sirs.”

The soldiers exchanged anxious glances, waiting for their leader’s order. Most of them had already understood what she had implied in her speech: without them, they were doomed and back to square one.

Unwillingly, the Commander raised his right hand, his lips forming a thin tight line. Brows furrowed, he opened his hand, lowered his fingers a little, shook his half-bent hand horizontally twice, and finally clenched his hand in a fist, only raising his index.

“EVERYONE DOWN!” Eliott yelled at his friends, jumping on the floor and grabbing Jijii along.

They had no time to react – bullets flew everywhere over their heads. Eliott groaned in pain. He was thankful he had learned military sign code when he had still been in school – that seemed so long ago already.

He kept a firm hand onto Jijii’s back to press her flat against the floor. If there was one person who knew how wild and random she could be, it was him. They had grown up together and had already been through enough, despite their young age, to know how she behaved in dangerous situation. Eliott grunted at the thought.

 _Unpredictable – untamed – instinctive_.

Jijii tried to move but Eliott just kept her still against the hard path. What now?

“El,” she mumbled, turning her head in his direction. “Pine Cone Plan.”

He stared at her codly – a goofy grin popped up on her face. He couldn't believe it. They were being shot at, she was half-dead and bleeding, and _still_ , she wanted to try and use that damn plan.

 _Why do we have this many plans anyway?_ He wondered internally, making a face.

But well – she was going to die soon if they didn’t act. At best, she would survive without medical attention for a few hours. She was not wrong; she had nothing to lose by at least trying and fighting.

She was not giving up; he wouldn't either.

“ _P.C.P!_ 3,” he yelled loud enough for all of them to hear. They all put their hands over their head.

“2,”

Jijii grabbed the smoke bombs, unpinned them and threw them at the soldiers.

“1,”

She rolled over to get closer to Eliott while Jack and Pauline stayed further away, together too. Jijii and Eliott exchanged a glance and she smiled confidently – maybe, just this once, the odds would be in their favor?

The bombs exploded, exuding a thick, opaque white smoke. Suddenly losing their sight, several soldiers panicked and kept their finger pressed on the trigger. Their blind shooting resulted into the collapse of a few parts of the hill, along with some soldiers. The youngsters waited for the shooting to stop to try and get back up on their feet. The smoke and the dust, raised by the fall of boulders, hid them for a few seconds.

Once up and reunited, they ran forward with all they had. They just needed to get through. They just needed to fight one last time.

A scream pierced the silence.

“Jack?!”

The other three turned around right away, Eliott holding onto Jijii to help her and Pauline raising her rifle at the smoke in front of them. They silently gulped, frozen. Where had Jack disappeared to?

Gunshots resounded and Jijii fell down once again.

Before panic could take over her friends’ mind, she cussed loudly enough for them to know she was still alive. This time, thankfully, the bullet had only grazed her shoulder.

_That bitch still hurt like hell; why the fuck do they feel like focusing on my left shoulder?!_

“Where to, now?!” Eliott's voice was shaking with both fear and rage.

“Nowhere, kids.” A man ordered, coming into view once the fog cleared.

It was the Commander, and he was holding the canon of his gun against Jack’s temple, an arm closed around his neck to keep him still. Pauline’s hands shook at this sight. Even though she had a finger near the trigger of her weapon, she could never possibly find it in herself to shoot at someone so close. Eliott tried to crouch near Jijii but another soldier emerged from behind, pointing his rifle at him. The tall boy narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth, slowly raising his hands above his head.

“Put that down, Miss Weanes.” The Commander asked coldheartedly – any semblance of a smile had disappeared from his face. He was not going to let them run away anymore; he had had enough of their guerilla warfare. Now that their pilot had probably drowned in the ocean and that their co-pilot was too wounded to take action, the E.G.G finally had an opportunity to bring them back to the facility and interrogate Scognamiglio once more. “Enough is enough. You’re all going to follow us back to the Garrison and answer all of our questions.”

“Or what?” Eliott scoffed bitterly, glancing at his friend more often than he would have liked, dead worried about her safety. “You’re going to kill us?”

“We can do so much worse than that, Cadet. And maybe _you_ are not desired anywhere,” the man pointed out, smirking at Jack. “But your friends here – Savage and Weanes – still have family that we will not hesitate to threaten. You and your friend Teerah don’t have any family who would want you back, but if I threaten Teerah, you will talk, won’t you?”

Eliott clenched his teeth and fists, rage burning in his golden eyes.

“If you dare to–”

“To what? Torture her?” The Commander laughed openly. “For us to do that, she first needs to survive! She’s been shot twice already. It’s a miracle she’s still breathing. She would almost be more useful, were she dead…”

With a nod, the Commander ordered his men to restrain the cadets.

On the floor, Jijii grunted – had she not been in such state, she’d have told him off. But one thing at a time; and for now, she was barely staying conscious. Her laborious breathing was scarcely audible.

However, Destiny genuinely liked to mess up people’s plan.

“ _Sup’ everyone, who needs a ride?_ ”

Léo’s happy voice resounded loudly around them and the sun suddenly disappeared.

“Flying Kitty!” Jijii cheered happily with a lazy grin, pointing at the sky.

“Jijii! Stop talking nonsense,” Jack started with an annoyed tone. “There's no…”

He looked up too and, indeed, there was a flying giant robotic blue Lion in the sky.

At least, the Commander behind him was just as surprised. Roaring, the Blue Lion fired at the E.G.G soldiers and snatched all of their attention away from the cadets. Flying in circles above their head, the Blue Lion didn’t seem to mind the soldiers’ shots.

“Up! Up! Up!” Pauline squealed as she grabbed onto Jijii and helped her back up again. She was covered in mud and dust, and streaks had been drawn on her cheeks by her tears. Still, she was holding onto her best friend as if she was the one needing support and not the other way around.

Jack elbowed the Commander in the stomach and scarcely dodged the shot the adult took. He ran as fast as possible toward his friends and grabbed a shield lying on the ground. The Commander pointed the canon of his weapon at them but Léo flew by and shot at him. He purposely missed him but at least he created enough of a distraction for the adult to step back and seek protection with his soldiers.

“We need to get into that robot’s cockpit,” Jack yelped as they were dodging whatever was being thrown at them. “Whatever this thing is, Léo is safe inside of it and can take us far away from this messy battlefield!”

“Get in, losers!” Léo yelled at his friends, getting closer. He was having some trouble piloting. He was lucky human weapons were not leaving a single scratch on the sentient Lion. “Hurry the fuck up, my dear Kitty Blue over there would like to leave this place quickly and so do I!”

“How are we supposed to get in?!” Pauline cried, dropping Jijii to turn around and kick a soldier in the balls. Jack and Eliott cringed at the sight but didn’t comment. The brunette helped her friend up again.

Beside her, Eliott tried to keep his composure. He had only seen his best friend this pale once – there was no way he was going to allow such events to repeat themselves, no way he was going to lose her too, not after all he had done to keep her alive.

“Just… gotta jump…” Jijii suggested, groggy.

“Jijii, no!” Eliott and Jack refused, both of them trying to protect their group with the shields they had gathered.

“Jijii… _fuck yes_.”

And just like that, she stepped forward with a grin and jumped from the cliff.

She kept her eyes open, refusing to look away. She felt gravity pull her down, as if someone had tied a rope around her waist and was pulling on it brutally. Trying to move as she fell, she looked up and gazed at the stormy sky. The sight was one of destruction, chaos and anarchy – still, she found the dark hues the sky had been painted with beautiful.

She blinked and all of a sudden, her breath was being taken away. She passed through one of the Lion’s door and landed on a weird inflatable mattress, sinking into it before being slowly laid on a metallic floor, delicately.

Part of her mind was trying to convince her to just stay here, lying on the cold comforting ground, and to close her eyes and finally get some rest.

Oh yeah, the multiple stupid voices in her head had finally stopped fighting to agree on this idea.

However, whenever the madness she kept tuck inside took a decision that should make her feel better, what was left of her reason seemed to talk louder than ever.

No. She couldn’t. It sounded like a delightful idea, but no. She needed to get up. She needed to rejoin Léo. To make sure he was safe. To make sure everyone was. And she needed to stay awake until her friends were far from this battlefield, safe and sound.

She rolled on her side and got up, resting on the wall on her right. Everything was blurry and this place was not the most stable one – was the Lion actually moving or was she just on the verge of puking?

An abrupt maneuver sent her flying on the ceiling then back against a wall. She groaned painfully, not having enough energy to scream or cry.

Wait, if she wasn’t the one screaming, who was yelling then?

“I’m dead! I’m dead, is that it? I’m sure I’m dead! Oh no come on I’m an _Atheist_ – I don’t believe in neither Hell nor Heaven nor whatever afterlife so where am I?!”

“Jack. Shut it.” She grumbled with difficulty, slowly getting back in a sitting position. She glanced around and saw Pauline not far away, shaking with fear in a foetal position. Before she could react and go comfort her, a giant crouched by her side and almost choked her with a hug.

“You’ve got to stop doing reckless things like this…” Eliott whispered hastily, his head leaning on hers.

“If y’all reacted faster I wouldn’t have to,” she countered with a smile, grabbing his shirt and hugging him back. She sighed, relaxed for a second, and took her distance again, looking at him. “Let’s go find Léo… We have to get out of here. Is everyone fine?”

“Not really,” Pauline admitted, trying to hide the tears on her cheeks. “But good enough to keep going, co-pilot.”

“Great. Let’s go find that dumbass then.” Eliott stated, lifting Jijii up and holding her as they all walked toward the nearest exit.

The interior of the Lion was much bigger than they had expected – or maybe it was just because they were all so exhausted.

Confused, they entered the cockpit and found a panicked Léo gawkily handling the commands. Jijii snorted at the sight, a soft smile lifting the corner of her lips.

“Captain Teal, why so panicked?” she asked, the softness of her voice betraying her poor state.

“I don’t know, maybe because they’re all shooting at us and I am piloting a giant sentient alien Blue Lion that keeps roaring and telling me to hurry and leave?” Léo answered, never giving up his sarcastic side.

“Why not hurry and leave then?”

“I don’t know Jijii, maybe because they keep attacking us and I don’t know how to pilot this thing because I am just a normal person?” This time, his tone was much more aggressive.

Worried, Jijii frowned and held out her arm until she could put it on Léo’s shoulder. Eliott did help a little, moving closer – moreover, he could now hang onto the pilot’s seat for more stability. The fight was still going on. Alarms were blazing. Colors kept flashing in the cockpit, indicators of bad news.

“Léo,” she murmured calmly. He gulped and felt guilt gnaw his inside. He knew she was not talking so low because she didn’t want to be heard by others. It was because she didn’t have any strength left to speak louder. “Look around. None of their shot damaged your new kitty friend. Plus, looks like dear Blue can fly much faster than any ship earthlings have created so far. Right, girl?”

A loud roar echoed all around them and Jijii giggled softly, resting her head on Eliott’s shoulder. Léo’s hands tensed on the commands for a second. The co-pilot glanced around quickly. “Any objections?”

“None. Hurry hurry hurry please. I want to be as far away as possible from the E.G.G!” Jack begged, holding onto whatever he could, not to fall when Léo maneuvered, Pauline encircling his waist with her arms since she had nothing and no one else to hold on.

“Well… Hey Kitty Blue, what was it that you wanted? ‘ _Family has to get back home_ ’?” Léo whispered, suddenly pulling the commands as far as possible and making them spin around way too quickly. He gritted his teeth and ignored the complaints of his friends.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jijii pressed, groaning. “Go to the facility, gotta… grab something!”

“Now is not the time, jijii!” They all yelled back.

“If not now, then when?” She answered and grabbed one of the levers, forcing Blue to spin on herself and take the direction to the facility. “Please, Eliott…”

“Jijii,” They exchanged a long, meaningful stare. No one knew better than her how much Scognamiglio wanted to get away. But she had something in mind. And he couldn’t ignore her demand when he knew they would maybe never be back. He sighed, nodded, and dropped her carefully on the floor. “What do I need to get?”

“Building DRZ-1338-TC,” she mumbled, her eyes shining with determination. Blue must have sensed it, because she went faster without Léo telling her to do so. The pilot wanted to scream; but also ask her friend how and why she had memorised such things. They all knew Jijii usually had the memory of a dead goldfish. “There shouldn’t be any guards. Walk forward for three meters, turn left, right, right again, door XE32, grab the box on which green ink has been dropped.”

“Copy that,” Eliott kissed her forehead, holding her face between his hands, and hurried toward the nearest exit, ready to go as soon as Blue would be closer to the building.

They got nearer and he jumped and rolled on the wet grass before running as fast as possible, following his friend’s instruction.

In the cockpit, they were all yelling at Jijii. She closed her eyes and tilted her head, resting it on the wall behind her. She knew they were safe for now, as all soldiers were still at the cliff – but panic had taken over her friends’ mind.

“That’s insane!”

“We have to get away!”

“Jijii, what have you done?! We’re all gonna kick the bucket soon if we don’t leave _now_!”

“Things are just things, why do you want that stuff so bad?!”

“Blue refuses to move now! How come she listens to you and not me? Hey Blue! If I’m your so-called child, listen to me and take us somewhere else!”

“ _Enough_ ,” Jijii whispered, coughing so slightly that no one noticed. Blood tasted bitter on her tongue – the metallic taste was all too familiar. However, now was not the time for reminiscence. “Can’t you just… trust me on this one?”

“Trust you? _Trust you?_ ” Pauline shrieked, her voice much higher than usual. “I _always_ trust you! I always believe you will make it out of any situation and that you can do anything! But right here and now I trust that you’re going to take the right decision and–”

“Go!” Eliott suddenly emerged from behind them, a box tucked under his arm. “What are you waiting for? I’m back, go!”

Léo didn’t wait for any more orders and took off right away, Blue listening to him once again. Eliott sat by Jijii’s side while Pauline and Jack held onto Léo’s seat with all of their might.

Léo put the pedal to the metal and kept his eyes fixed on the screen in front of him. They were flying higher and higher, perpendicular to the earth’ ground under them.

And when they finally exited the atmosphere of the planet, Léo released a breath he didn’t know he had kept. His muscles relaxed all at once and he sighed loudly, almost melting in his seat. Sloppily, he rubbed his hands on his face and forced himself to breath normally. What had they gone through? What were they involved in? What were they going to do now?

The dark haired boy glanced behind his shoulder and took a look at his friends. Jack was obviously feeling bad, green as the puke he was on the verge of vomiting. Pauline had stopped screaming but she was a mess, covered in mud and dust from head to toe, her curly dark brown hair entangled. Léo heard Eliott groan in pain more than he saw it. Frowning, he remembered how bad he had looked when they had found him just yesterday in the facility. And still, despite his condition, he had gone and retrieved what Jijii had asked him for. Talking about Jijii, how was she doing?

Léo stilled.

He closed his eyes and bit his lower lip, hesitation flowing in his veins. Did he really want to take a look at her? He had not seen much because of the confusion and chaotic events that had taken place, and he wasn’t sure anymore he wanted to look at her. Jijii was his friend. His co-pilot. His partner in crime. She was that one person who always smiled and cheered everyone up all while complaining about a billion things all at once.

And she had looked like a walking corpse – pale, dizzy, covered in fresh and dried blood.

A whisper caught their attention.

“This is amazing…” They all looked up, staring at Jijii with astonishment. Wonder was written all over her face and her eyes shone like a thousand stars were sparkling in it. “This is it… This is where we’ve all dreamed to go. This is… _space_.”

It took a few seconds for the information to sink in. Jijii laughed weakly and tried to get closer to the windshield, screen – whatever, she didn’t know how to qualify it but it allowed her to look outside and that was all that mattered.

Until a white light flashed in front of them and what looked like a round portal opened in the middle of space.

“What’s this? Are we starring in _Stargate_ now?” Pauline wondered out loud, making a face.

“A wormhole!” Jack gasped, excitedly hitting Léo’s seat repeatedly. “A real wormhole! Oh my god, where does it lead?”

_Home. Home. Home. Home. Home._

“No idea,” Léo said, confused. “But Kitty Blue is purring again in my head.”

“Soooo... Are we going through it?” Jack asked, much more timidly. “That could be terribly dangerous…”

“W-We could still go home…” Pauline suggested. She didn’t even manage to convince herself. “ _What am I saying?_ We can’t. The E.G.G. will go after our family if we do.”

“I personally don’t trust space that much anymore,” Eliott admitted unwillingly, averting his eyes. “Nonetheless, the universe is vast enough for us to find some kind of safe haven. Anything but Galra or earthling territory. I’ve had my share of it, thank you.”

Léo opened his mouth but closed it right away, lowering his gaze. He turned around in his chair and finally looked at Jijii. She was still gazing at the view, a sleepy smile on her face. “Jijii… Any idea?”

“Me?” she seemed surprised; which startled them all. She blinked twice very slowly, still staring at the lights outside. “I… Well, yeah, sure. But so far my random ideas have not been the safest to follow these past few days.” She admitted with a bitter smile.

“Thanks to your stupid ideas we learned about the E.G.G.’s plans, we found Eliott, and we’re still alive and in space.” Léo blurted without thinking, not knowing where it came from.

He laughed.

“Well, we’ve kicked asses. We’ve gone to space. All that’s left to do is to represent the human race, isn’t it?”

Her shit-eating grin and the look in her eyes as she finally turned to them was what eventually allowed them all to feel at ease and unwind. Léo allowed the Blue Lion to guide them forward and they went through the wormhole, not knowing what was awaiting them but not fearing the outcome either.

On the other side, they appeared in the sky of a foreign planet, where the sky looked pink and the landscape peaceful. What surprised them most was the giant white castle that was built here and had seemingly been here long enough for the vegetation to grow on the lowest part of it.

Blue landed slowly in the courtyard, right in front of a door large enough for her to get through. Before the teens had had the occasion to get out, she roared powerfully, making the ground tremble.

The heavy door emitted a baby blue glow and slowly opened with a low rumble that didn’t fail to accentuate the teens’ uneasiness.

After all, they were all terrified, exhausted, and way too young for what they had went through the past few days.

Once out, Pauline thanked the Blue Lion for the trip and said sorry for thinking she was terrifying. Though, she didn’t stick around any longer and walked away from her with Jack, who wanted to explore this place already despite his anguish.

Léo smiled at Blue and hugged her giant paw like a kid, genuinely thankful for all she had done for them. He had no idea what they were about to discover, but her soothing purr made him unwind enough not to overthink it too much.

Meanwhile, Eliott was carrying Jijii piggyback style. Both of them looked at the castle suspiciously.

“You think there’s the slightest chance we can take a nap in here?” Eliott questioned, tired and blase. Jijii snorted and mumbled against his neck. The second after, she was losing consciousness, for good this time.

“If there’s any more enemies in here, please, as my best friend… Just kill me already.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Finally, SPACE ! :D
> 
> Did you like this chapter? Do not hesitate telling me what you felt or liked/disliked :) And now that they're on Arus and about to discover what is really going on in the universe... Can you guess now who is going to be which paladin? It's the last time you can have theories about it until the big revelation, let's see if your instincts were right ! ;D
> 
> PS: Are you starting to ship some characters? OTP and BROTP?
> 
> You can also follow me on [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jijii.teerah/) or [tumblr](http://jijii-production.tumblr.com) ! 


	4. What’s this place? What’s going on? And who are you people?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the precedent chapter: The group finally escaped the E.G.G and arrived on Arus, thanks to Blue. But Jijii is heavily wounded and already lost way too much blood... Are they going to find allies here, or more enemies?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I couldn't post earlier... I had tons of exams, but now I'm mostly free! yeaaah!

The teenagers stared at the dark corridor before them for a long time. Blue was sitting behind them, still as a statue.

Jack gulped and scratched at his neck nervously. His skin was red and irritated there – he needed to lose this habit. But he couldn’t help it: no matter how much he wanted to run in there and explore, he was terrified. It was a giant corridor. On a unknown planet. And it was dark and he didn’t like darkness. Most people hated darkness after all, right? He sure did. And his overthinking brain was throwing a billion theories  at him. What if there were monsters in there? Aliens? Would they be friendly? Was this a deadly trap? Had the Blue Lion led them here only to feed them to something even more frightening?

“Well, pals,” Eliott sighed, adjusting Jijii on his back to carry her more easily. “I’m here, I’m queer, and it’s time to surpass our fear.”

Gobsmacked, they all peered at him, mouth hanging open as he walked forward, looking as blase as ever. Léo was the first to follow, raising his arms in the air and cursing under his breath that ‘anyway, they were doomed.’

Jack and Pauline exchanged a glance – they knew about Eliott’s goofy side but had never actually seen it themselves. The tall light brown haired boy was always nonchalant in front of them, unless he was the one in charge. They sometimes had seen him engage in screaming battle with Jijii – she really had a talent when it came to enraging even the calmest people – but that was it.

“We don’t have much of a choice, do we?” Pauline asked her friend with a defeated sigh, shaking her head.

“At least, if we die, it’ll be a cool death on a foreign planet that’s not even part of our solar system.” Jack said, just as optimistic as her.

“How lucky Jijii is to be unconscious…”

They both shrugged and dragged their feet slowly, going after their friends reluctantly. The light from outside allowed them to find their way in the huge corridor, at least until they reached a staircase. The height of the stairs though, more adapted to creatures their height rather than that of the Blue Lion, surprised them. Sticking together, they lifted their chin up and looked around.

The ceiling started glowing and lights were suddenly on. The blue light coming from above enveloped them and a robotic voice resounded around them.

“ _Hold for identity scan,_ ”

“The fuckity fucking hell is it this time?!” Léo cried out, moving closer to Eliott and Jijii.

“I don't know? It’s like it is scanning us?!” Jack said nervously, tracking every single detail he could catch in order to find a logical explanation to all of this.

It all stopped at once, the tunnels of light fading into nothingness, as if nothing had happened. They didn't get the time to exchange glances before more lights got turned on mysteriously. The castle seemed to have been brought back to life thanks to them entering it. Upstairs, a corridor was illuminated by soft, blue lights. Eliott was first to react.

“Let's hope this path will lead us to some kind of beds.”

“Do you ever think about something other than napping?” Léo questioned, smirking.

“Léo, do you know why you still can’t appreciate the beauty of a nap?”

“Tell me why, mighty Eliott?”

“Because you're a whining baby.”

The gasp of indignation that escaped Léo made them all laugh so hard they almost forgot about the pain and tiredness they were all suffering from. Once again, they followed Eliott and, this time, took more time to take in the sight of this foreign castle. As they walked, the lights would turn on, as if sensing their presence.

It was overwhelming, according to Pauline. She had dreamt of this. Dreamt of landing on a faraway planet, and discover not only the culture but the landscapes, the architecture, the language…

However, every time she had dreamt of it, she had imagined Jijii would be by her side and leading the way. Her best friend had always been impulsive and ready to jump into the unknown. When Pauline was scared – and oh, how often was that – she just had to look at Jijii and her goofy grin to know that everything would be alright. Jijii disliked leading a group, taking decision for others – still, she was impatient and had to do it rather often because they were all still kids who feared responsibilities. Pauline loved that if needed, she could count on her.

Not too much, though; Jijii got involved in way too many troubles for her liking. It had only gotten worse when they had gone to different elementary schools. And once they had started their studies at the E.G.G., she had discovered how mischievous  her best friend could be – all because of Eliott and Yoann.

Walking near her, Jack was admirating the details of the architecture. It really gave of the feeling of a castle, even though the materials used for its construction were clearly more advanced than what they had on Earth. He wondered why it was deserted though.

He sighed and did his best to ignore the tremble in his lower lip. He missed his family already. He had no clues and that was what frustrated him the most. Did they know about his disappearance? Would the E.G.G. pass it off as another accident or would they go and threaten his family because of what he had done?

Quickly glancing at Eliott, another thought crossed his mind. He was far away from home, but hasn't he always been, in some kind of way? At least now he was with his team – his second family. And they had Eliott to guide them.

 _The_ Eliott Scognamiglio.

The one who had majored every single year and had never failed to keep his first place as a fighter pilot. The one who appeared lazy but, if he put his mind into it, could do almost everything. And he was here and leading them.

That, at least, made Jack relax.

But certainly not Léo.

The dark haired boy was brooding and his eyes were either looking down or at Jijii. He didn't care what they would find in this castle – he cared about his friend’s safety.

He took in a shaky breath and sank his hands into the pockets of his uniform. He was lucky his clothes were almost intact, as his friends’ were obviously not. Jijii’s, particularly, looked like she was wearing a bright red jacket. Had it not be blood giving this hue to it, he would have thought that this color really suited her.

However, as they passed more and more corridors and staircases, he grew impatient. How much time did they have before she breathed for the last time? How much time until she reached her breaking point?

He had no answer and even if his friends around were relaxing thanks to the lack of enemies, he wasn't forgetting what was at stake. He hurried the pace and forced Eliott to do so too. The glint in Eliott’s eyes let him know that they were thinking of the same thing.

Eventually, they reached a round room, a control board standing in its center. They approached carefully. Jack started searching for a button or whatever to turn it on and examine it when a low rumble startled them.

Something emerged from the floor. It looked like some kind of pod – despite the multiple marking around the control board, only two pods arose from the ground. Each of them seemed to have a one person capacity.

The youngsters stuck together even closer, their guard up and ready to affront whatever awaited them.

One of the pods exhaled a strong breeze of cold air, mist rolling on the floor like shiny, snowy waves. Inside, the shadow of a silhouette slowly became more distinguishable.

“Hold onto her for me.” Eliott ordered as he passed Jijii to Jack, not giving the light brown haired boy time to refuse or question his decisions.

The tall boy cautiously took a step forward and stilled when the ‘door’ of the pod opened, someone exiting it. And Eliott, being who he is, took a step on his right and watched the stranger fall face first into the floor, instead of catching them in his arms like a decent being would have done. He crossed his arms on his chest and raised a questioning eyebrow, taking his sweet time to detail the unknown’s person characteristics.

The three other teens groaned in unison, wondering how their friend could still be a nonchalant bitch, even in this situation. Had he really done that? Was he really _this_ indifferent without Jijii to supervise his actions?

“Holy quiznak… What’s going on?” The stranger mumbled while getting on their knees, dizzily running a hand through their hair.

The person seemed to be a girl, probably not older than them. She was wearing a long dress, more white than baby blue. The details of it screamed ‘royalty’. Her hair was a fiery red and fell down to her waist and ended in slight waves. She was wearing some kind of diadem, a gleaming blue jewel shining on her forehead. Her ears were much longer than the earthlings’ – it reminded them of elf ears. Because of her pale skin, her irises – tainted in the same red as her hair – caught even more the teen’s attention. And right under the corners of her eyes were two small marks shaped like boomerangs, coral coloured.

“Mother?” She looked up, seemingly lost. The teary glint in her eyes was quickly blinked away when she noticed the teenagers.

“Oh, uh, hey – wassup?” Léo blurted without thinking, distraught by her stare. Eyes wide, he mentally slapped himself. Jijii had way too much influence on him.

All of a sudden, the red haired girl jumped on her feet and closed the distance between her and Léo, pressing a dagger to his throat. None of the teens had seen her grab her weapon.

“Who are you people and what are you doing in my castle?”

“ _Easy peasy milady!_ ” Léo yelped, raising his hands in what he hoped was a universal symbol of surrender. “We ain’t enemies, we’re just seeking refuge… Eliott, some help would be welcome?”

“You’re doing amazing, small cub,” Eliott said with a lazy yawn, arms still crossed.

“How did you enter this place? Were you sent by the Galra? It’s a trap made up by those traitors, isn’t it?!” The girl narrowed her eyes and pressed her knife harder against Léo’s skin.

“W-We are actually fleeing them…” Jack gulped and tried to reason with the girl, protectively holding Jijii closer to him.

“Kitty Blue took us here! She was screaming ‘ _home home home home home_ ’ non-stop in my head as soon as she saw the wormhole and then she _nyooooomed_ us here through it and then took us to the castle and roared the door open for us!”

“… “

“You used _nyom_ as a _verb_? Really, Léo?”

“Shut it, Jack! I panicked, okay?! It’s all Jijii’s fault!”

“What’s a _Jijii_?” The red haired girl wondered.

“Jijii is our friend and she is dying so if you could all just stop your yelling and take care of her that’d be nice!” Pauline shouted unexpectedly, holding onto her friend’s hand.

Silence felt heavy on their shoulder. The alien girl frowned, sighed, and took a step backward, swiftly hiding her knife in her long sleeves. She detailed them all quickly and walked to the control board as the other pod finally opened too.

“ _...-anger!_ Danger!” The new stranger yelled, already down to fight. Startled, the teenagers stared at this new person with apprehension – it’s like they never had time to focus on one thing at a time.

He, too, looked like a teenager. He was around Léo’s height, so about six feet tall, and had wild black hair. His blue-green eyes were moving back and forth, searching for whatever explanation could justify what was going on in the room. His clothes were of a similar design to that of the red hair girl and he had the same pointy ears. The marking under his eyes however, was not coral coloured but a deep purple-blue hue.

“Princess! Need help with those people?” He threatened openly, adopting a fighting stance.

“Jake,” she answered indifferently, taping quickly on the screen that had popped in front of her. “Close that pretty mouth of yours and come help me over here. They’re harmless, don’t worry about them. And one of them’s about to die. Healing pod?”

“On it, Princess!”

Pauline blinked quickly, watching the two aliens go back and forth in the room, taping on new screens and talking about things she had no clue about.

She tightened her grip on Jijii’s hand. The adrenaline rush had started to wear off and now the panic was building up in her throat. Pauline didn’t like this situation. Not at all. She had no idea how her friends were able to keep their calm like that.

Well, they were not _that_ calm either; they just had their own weird way of reacting.

Léo usually yelled and fled when in trouble – but Jijii had had enough influence so that he was now making jokes and saying whatever he had in mind when confronted to a bad situation.

Jack was terrified, but his will to know more and understand everything helped him overstep the fear that should have paralyzed him – if knowledge was part of the end goal, he was not going to give up easily.

Eliott… Eliott always seemed like nothing mattered. Had it not been for the tension in his shoulders and hands, Pauline wouldn’t have noticed how bad he was feeling despite the impression he gave off – after all, he had just come back from a year in space where he had been abducted by aliens, and now his best friend was perhaps going to die. He had quite the reasons to feel bad.

And Pauline? She was reaching her breaking point. She wasn’t one to handle big troubles or stress or anxiety – so all at once? It was the same as throwing her weaponless in a lion den – _Ha! How ironic_ , she thought. There were two unknown people from an unknown planet doing unknown things for an unknown reason.

Yeah, now she got why Jack was frustrated when he had no clue.

“You and you,” the red haired girl pointed a finger Pauline and Jack, then at the pod she had exited. “Put your Jijii-whatever in here.”

Eliott stepped in front of his friends right away.

“Why?”

“To heal her of course!” she bit back, snapping her fingers impatiently.

“Why should we trust you? The last time I met aliens, they kept me as a prisoner for a year.” Eliott asked, voice cold as ice. His eyes had lost their shine and his stance was much more defensive.

“Either you play and bet on us to save your friend, or you're a coward and let her die. With us she might have a chance. Don't even take that risk and she will die for sure.”

Silence ruled over the room for what felt like minutes instead of seconds.

And someone moved.

“Get her inside, quick!” Léo ordered has he placed an arm around Jijii’s waist and lifted her up, Jack and Pauline hurriedly helping him. They carried her to the pod, where they placed her on her feet until the machine took over to keep her still. The door materialized in front of her body and the pod filled with icy air right after.

They took a step back and stared at their friend. The two strangers came closer and opened multiple screens just by tapping on the pod. The screens were flying like holograms before them, displaying all the medical information related to their friend.

“Her vitals are so low…” the young man wondered under his breath, clicking on different settings of the screen.

“But she can be saved. She’s going to spend at last half a quintant in here, but she will survive.” the girl grinned proudly at that and put a hand on her hips, pivoting to face the teenagers. Eliott was the closest, but she decided to make eye contact with Léo – the one who had decided to trust them. “I think we all need some explanations. Do you… _people…_ eat? I'd rather discuss about this whole mess while eating something!”

“I’m all for eating but I’m not moving from here.” Eliott stated while sitting on the floor. He crossed arms and legs and leant against the pod without breaking eye contact with the red haired girl.

“Fine by me,” she shrugged and walked back to the control board. “Jake, go get some food.”

“I can’t leave you alone with th–”

“I said: _food_.”

Her cold glare was enough to make the young boy rush out of the room. Pauline sat on the floor with Jack, staying in the back, away from any kind of danger.

“Girl, I may not know you, but knowing that food is your priority is making you win points.”

“Points? What kind of points? Your people live off of points?” The alien answered, curious.

“Uh… Long story short, it means I’m starting to appreciate you?”

“Pauline. Later,” Eliott ordered, his golden eyes still following the alien’s every movement. “Who _are_ you?”

The red haired girl stared at him a few seconds before answering, chin up and raising one eyebrow.

“I am Zamia Infima, princess of the planet Altea, daughter of Queen Živa and King Alfor. Now that you know my name, I’d like to hear yours.”

“We ain’t gonna sound cool now that you’ve announced you’re a princess…” Léo sighed as he sat by the pod too, legs stretched outward. The room went silent. He blinked and blushed, stuttering. “D-Did I say that out loud?”

“Dude. Jijii really does have too much influence on you.”

“Shut it, Jack.”

“So,” Zamia pointed a long finger at Jack – he noticed the pretty green lime colour her nails were painted. “You are… Jack? Oh my Slǭbak-ti. That’s going to be terrible not messing up your name when calling Jake.”

“Jake?”

“Really? You focus on the dude’s name rather than slob… Sklab… Stob…” Pauline paused, her tongue sticking out from her lips. Pouting, she shook her head. “I can't pronounce that thing.”

“ _Slǭbak-ti_  It is, like, one of the main Goddesses we pray to on my planet.” Zamia explained slowly, her hands shaking on the control board. Her ears moved down like those of a kicked puppy. “Or I should say, was…”

“What happened?” Jack asked softly, trying to make himself look smaller.

“As I told you, my mother was the ruling Queen. And my father a paladin of Voltron.”

Eliott opened wide eyes and Léo gasped audibly.

“ _Voltron_?” they both asked.

“A weapon made to protect the universe and help people. You’ve heard of that name already? Do the people on your planet know about it?”

“Kitty Blue told me.” Léo shrugged, thoughtful. He glanced at Jake, who had just come back in the room and walking to Zamia while holding a tray, on which rested a few bowls and sporks, and a big bowl of weird-looking green goo. The Altean boy gave one portion of food to the princess, looking over her shoulder to read what was on the control board.

“And I’ve heard it during my time in jail,” Eliott whispered, tilting his head to look at his best friend, as if she could comfort him even from inside the pod. “The first time I went to space, my crew and I were abducted by a species in search of this weapon. I believe they were called… _‘Galras'_?”

“Those quiznacking…” Zamia growled, tightening her grip on her bowl and spork.

“They’re the ones who destroyed our home,” Jake explained as he put a hand on her shoulder. “Their leader at that time, _Zarkon_ , betrayed King Alfor. In his quest for power, he destroyed everything opposing him. He wanted Voltron for himself and planned to rule over the universe…”

Silence took over the room. With their shoulders dropped, the two Alteans looked defeated and exhausted. Voice shivering, Zamia added:

“From what I’ve seen on the control board… We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years. My father forced us into those pods _ten thousand years_ ago. All that’s left from Altea is the two of us, this castle… and Voltron.”

“Wait,” Pauline rose her hand like a good student, brows forming a tight knot on her forehead. “If Voltron is a weapon… Why did the Blue Lion bring us here?”

Wiping the gleaming tears on the corners of her eyes, the princess held her head up and smiled.

“The Blue Lion is one of the five lions that form Voltron when fusing. And I think that Blue found in Léo a new pilot.”

“ _Oh-my-god._ Are we going to pilot a space robot?” Jack asked excitedly.

“Jack,” Pauline chuckled. “Your nerdiness is showing.”

“But - but - but!” he grabbed her face and flashed her a big grin, stars shining in his green-olive eyes. “Space robot! It’s like a dream coming true!”

“This is the kind of motivation I like!” Zamia grinned happily, closing the panels of the control board. She walked to the teenagers and gave them some food, eating her own with a grimace. “I wanted bakeries… Is food goo all we have?” She made puppy eyes at Jake.

“Sorry Babe,” he shrugged and ate his own share calmly. “We’re going to have to survive on this.”

The four other teens gobbled up their portion so fast the two Alteans stopped talking to look at this hilarious scene. After all, the teenagers had not eaten in… a while.

Three bowls of goo eaten, Pauline yawned and stretched sleepily, rubbing a hand on her face.

“Man, I’m dead tired… Are there some rooms where we could sleep?”

“Sure,” Jake smiled and nodded before standing up. “Come with me, I will show you around. I think you could all use some rest. While you do that, I will see if I can fix some stuff here and there. This way once your friend gets out of the pod most of the castle’s functions will be operative.”

They smiled and nodded. Standing up, Léo dragged his feet slowly after the others, too tired to be as excited as Pauline and Jack. Pauline was bouncing up and down, a big smile plastered on her face – she was eager to know more about the mechanics of the castle. And Jack? Jack was overwhelmed by the amount of things he could learn here, the difference with human technology and all the discoveries he might be able to make thanks to the Altean science.

The four of them left, happily discussing about the castle and its history.

“What’s this sound?” Zamia asked Eliott, frowning.

“What sound?”

“This high-pitched sound…” She mumbled and looked around, grabbing her skirt and lifting it to walk around more comfortably. She stared at the pod she had existed not so long ago and crouched near it, looking inside. Zamia gasped suddenly, catching Eliott’s attention – even if he’d have never admitted it. She smiled and whispered, relief obvious on his face. “Hello there… You’re the voices I’m hearing?”

“... Are you sure you don’t need to get back in that pod?”

“El’,” she sighed and showed him the four mice in the pod, squeaking and running around happily. “I think that by sharing a pod for ten thousand years, we developed a psychic link. I hear them talk in my head and vice-versa. Looks like we’re not the only survivors afterall…”

Eliott crossed his arms a little tighter, resting the back of his head against Jijii’s pod. He closed his eyes and took a long breath in.

He, too, hoped he wasn’t the only survivor left from the Kerberos mission.

 

→ → → → →

 

_It hurts._

**_Where am I?_ **

_Everything hurts._

**_Why is it so dark and hazy?_ **

_So painful._

**_What’s going on?_**

_It hurts._

_It had always hurt._

Jijii slowly blinked as the healing pod released a cold breeze in the room. She took a wobbly step forward after the opening of the door and, thankfully, Eliott was already there and catching her.

“I’ve got you…” he whispered slowly, holding her firmly against him. “I’ve got you, you’re safe…”

She grabbed his shirt and closed her eyes again, trying to recover from her nap. She silently told herself repeatedly to focus and open her eyes again – she couldn’t let Eliott handle everything on his own for too long, she needed to be by his side and support him. “How long…?”

“Half a quintant,” Eliott answered, slowly leading her out of the room. She sent him a questioning glance. “Sorry, it means half a day. It’s… Altean – the language of the people living here. They helped us. They’re enemies of the Galras too. We’re safe here.”

“It’s so rare for you to trust new people,” she scoffed, using him as a crutch to walk. They were heading to a small, white room at the end of a long corridor. Inside, two teenagers were talking together, voices low. “Oh so I bet you’re the Altean people.” Jijii blurted, still dizzy. “I love your long ears, they’re cute and pretty.”

“And you’re that ‘Jijii’ they told us about.” Zamia smiled, a hand on her hip.

“Please don’t hit on my girlfriend like that.” Jake complained, pouting.

“I’m not… what?” The human girl ran a hand through her hair as Eliott helped her to sit down on a medical bed.

“Nothing, just that on Altea, telling someone you like their ears is kinda like flirting,” Zamia shrugged. She opened a screen near the bed Jijii was sitting on, and frowned at it. “I have to check your vitals, can I please…?” She grabbed a few colorful wires and weird-looking patches – Jijii grimaced at the sight.

“Do you really have to?”

“Don’t be a kid and let her and Jake do their job.” Eliott ordered, glaring at his friend impatiently.

“Oh so Jake’s your name?” Jijii looked at the Altean boy, before turning to the girl. “And what’s yours? I mean, you know my name already sooooo…”

“I’m Zamia Infima, Princess of Altea, and you gotta stop the blabbering and listen to the nurse.” She nodded toward Jake and allowed him to get closer, starting the examination. “I’m sorry for your shoulder… We tried everything we could but it was too late already and we should have made you wear a special outfit, made for the healing pod… But we couldn’t lose anymore time. We saw you had many more scars… Did that also happen during your escape from your planet?”

“It’s okay, really,” Jijii smiled and rolled her left shoulder. It stung a little but she could move it. “I don’t mind scars, I’ve grown used to those. And it doesn’t hurt much…”

 _Lies. Lies. Lies._  

“It ain’t worst than what we went through with _LS_ ,” she laughed and hid the pain far, far behind her mask. “Right, El?”

The Alteans turned to him and he blinked, frowning and thinking for a while. He scratched at his head and bit his lower lip, his stare drifting away.

“El…?”

“I…” he hesitated, coming closer to sit by her side and press his shoulder against her. From what she could see, he hadn’t rested much during her time in the healing pod. “What is _LS_? I don’t think I remember it… Was it something I knew lots about?”

“It’s alright if you don’t remember,” Jijii smiled and took his hand in hers. He was looking so down, so defeated, so lost – she didn’t have the heart to tell him all about it again. She realised he had forgotten a lot more than just a year of his life. He seemed to have forgotten about what made them who they were, where they came from… It was fine – she would keep it to herself until he asked about it himself.

“You will get your memories back soon, I’m sure of it. You’re okay. I’m okay. Léo, Pauline and Jack are okay. All we have to do now is to go explore the universe and find Yoann, right?” she flashed him a huge grin and linked their finger, like she used to. They were family. She would always be here to support him when he needed it. And if what he needed was for her to be her usual stupid self, then so be it.

“About that, I think I should explain you the new plans…” Eliott chuckled, surprising the two Alteans – they had, after all, only seen his grumpy and tired side up until now. “Y’see, there’s this thing called _Voltron…_ ”

 

→ → → → →

 

All the teenagers had regrouped in the control room. Eliott had told Jijii everything and the other earthlings had rested enough to be operational by now. The Alteans had lent everyone new clothes; they mostly had found stuff in a few rooms, washed it all, and the earthlings had chosen whatever they liked.

Pauline had picked an easy outfit: a white button-up shirt, dark brown pants, boots, and a dark brown waistcoat. Jack had opted for what reminded him of nordic viking clothes; thick fabrics, some fur around the shoulders, and arms well covered. Léo liked simplicity too, hence the grey button-up shirt he had picked. However, he also loved to be one of a kind; hence, this time, the black sleeveless coat he was now wearing with dark fingerless gloves that ran up his arms until his elbows. With that, he had chosen dark red pants and some solid grey boots. Eliott had gone for what looked like old jeans, sneakers and a lilac hoodie – how in the hell had he found in this mess of space stuff, clothes that looked so much to his everyday outfit? That was the million dollar question.

And Jijii? Jijii, of course, wanted her clothes to perfectly reveal who she was. She was wearing a dark-grey shirt, with long sleeves she could button up her elbows. She had managed to find some kind of light grey metallic boots and a jagged piece of dark green fabric she was wearing around her waist thanks to two brown belts. She had hooked a long string of blue-greenish pearls on it, that circle her hips. Oh and, of course, she had picked the black and red striped fingerless gloves right away – ‘ _Red suits me_ ’ she had said in her defense. When they had all asked her about the breastplate that covered the left part of her chest, she had just shrugged like it was utterly normal to wear this kind of thing.

And now, Zamia was playing with the control board, humming and dispatching screens here and there – until a big hologrammed map of the universe displayed all around them.

“Okay everyone,” Zamia started, a wide smile plastered on her face. “It looks like the Galras haven’t managed to trace you guys yet, so we’ve got a little time and we’re going to put it to good use.”

“What is it? Do you want us to help with the reparations of the castle?” Jack asked, trying not to smile too much.

“We can totally help with that!” Pauline added, full of energy now that she had slept and eaten.

“Talk for yourselves, guys,” Léo whined. “I don’t know anything about earth’s technology, so don’t count on me to repair Altean tech.”

“Preach it, my boy, preach it!” Jijii sing-sang, Eliott hiding his smile awkwardly. After all, none of those three had taken engineering classes – their thing was piloting.

“Well don’t worry about it, Jake will be able to manage most of it by himself. Some help is welcomed, but not necessary.” Zamia reassured as she typed on a small screen, five lions materializing in the middle of the universe hologram. “Anyway, this is what I called you here for. Those are coordinates. While you were all resting, I managed to find where my father had hidden the Lions.”

“Hey! A mini Kitty Blue!” The Blue Lion hologram quickly flew to Léo, making the smile on his face grow even bigger. He laughed and petted the fake Blue Lion.

“Blue went to you because your Quintessence is exactly what she searches for in a Paladin,” the princess explained, a proud smile on her face. “That makes you, Léo, the Blue Paladin, right leg of Voltron and protector of the universe. The Lion chooses the Paladin.”

The dark haired boy didn’t answer but they could all see how his eyes shone as he kept playing with the Blue hologram. Jijii elbowed Eliott and discreetly whispered to him.

“ _The wand chooses the wizard, Mr Potter._ ”

Scognamiglio elbowed her back jokingly, both of them muffling their childish laughter.

“Why does the Black Lion looks like he’s in the same location as Blue?” Pauline asked, playing with her hair.

“King Alfor hid the Black Lion here, in the Castle of Lions, so that Zarkon wouldn’t get his hands on it. The Black Lion is in its hangar, waiting until all of the other Lions are brought back here. Until then, the doors of its hangar will stay closed.” Jake explained slowly, painfully remembering why such high level of security had been necessary.

“The Yellow Lion,” Zamia said, swiftly changing the subject to a happier one. “Is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above their own. Pauline… Take a guess?”

The brunette stilled, opening wide eyes as the Yellow Lion hologram came her way. Jijii gave her a pat on the back, holding up a thumb. “That’s my girl! Too kind for your own good; ain’t that what I’ve been repeating to you ever since we’ve met?”

“Y-Yes but… But is it really true?” Pauline mumbled, playing even more nervously with her hair. “I can be quite selfish, I mean-...”

“Oh, stop it Mother Teresa, and accept the scary responsibility of becoming a defender of the universe!” her best friend jokingly added, giving her one more pat on the back before walking back to Eliott’s side.

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring,” the Altean boy grinned, pointing a finger at Jack. “Jack, buddy, will you do us the honor?”

“W-What? But… I-I’m not… I… What?” Jack stuttered, looking around quickly to make sure the Green Lion hologram was floating in his direction and not to someone’s else. Everyone smiled at this and that alone was enough to convince him the Green Lion was now his.

“And now-”

Eliott didn’t let Zamia finish her sentence. He pointed at the Red Lion with his usual blasé face and announced:

“Dibs on the Red one.”

“Hey!” the two Alteans and the new paladins started yelling at his impetuous, impulsive decision.

“You can’t just-”

“Too late. I called dibs.” Eliott said nonchalantly.

“He _did_ call dibs.” Jijii approved with a nod, like it was a perfectly logical argument. They then shook hands as they agreed on their own on this new choice.

“THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS!”

“Chill, Miamia,” Jijii answered so naturally, the new nickname left the princess dumbfound. “Plus, who were you going to give it to?”

As if to confirm Jijii’s theory and Eliott’s decision, the Red Lion flew to Scognamiglio while Black came closer to the younger girl, imitating a purr.

“Okay, but, nope. Not possible.” Jake grumbled, running a hand on his face repeatedly. “It cannot… No quiznacking way that…”

“Why not? What’s the matter?”

“Because the Black Paladin is the decisive head of Voltron! Its pilot has to be a born Leader and in control at all times! And even if, from what I’ve understood of your story, you indeed all followed Jijii without hesitation… She’s also the one who put you in trouble at first!”

Silence took over the room, the only sound being the fake purring of the Red and Black Lions. All of them turned to Jijii, who was blinking in surprise but certainly not looking in any kind of distress. They stared at her like they were discovering her, the only person smiling being Eliott.

She smiled and gestured her hands as she spoke.

“... Soooooo, what? Am I the Mom Friend now?”

Jack was the first to react, speaking softly as he scratched anxiously at the back of his neck.

“I-I can’t… Jijii, you’re no leader. I’m sorry, really, but I’d rather be led by Eliott...”

“You’re great but… But no. I don’t see a leader in you either, I’m sorry…” Pauline murmured slowly, obviously guilty to betray her friend like this.

“... Léo, you want to add something to that? You’re usually the leader, and since everyone’s speaking their mind anyway, if you have something to say, it’s now or never.” Jijii offered with a smile, holding back the urge to cross her arms – she refused to show them she was now on the defensive, or else, they wouldn’t say what they were truly thinking anymore. She didn’t need ‘protective’ lies. She needed, had always needed, the bitter and painful truth.

Léo looked away with shame. He seemingly didn’t think either that she should have been their leader but didn’t have the guts to say it to her face. She was one of his closest friends, he had always counted on her and the thought of her being the leader of their small team had often crossed his mind… However, by adding Eliott to the team, it changed the whole equation.

Jijii smiled and opened her arms, shoulders relaxed and showing that she wasn’t holding any grudge against her friends.

“So, is everyone agreeing that Eliott shall be Black paladin in my stead?”

“Nope.” Eliott countered right away, falling down on the floor to sit cross-legged, like a kid.

“Eliott…” she sighed. They all did.

“I called _dibs_. Red looks cool and fast, which means I can get back here faster than any of you and have more nap time. Plus…” his voice slowly turned into a whisper, his brows furrowing as he became more silent. He was searching for something – was searching for a memory that would explain that weird, fuzzy feeling in his gut.

“… Plus, you don’t want to be a Leader. Never again.” she explained, as if she knew exactly about that memory he couldn’t remember. A dark expression lingered on her face for a second, the knuckles of her hands whitening as she tightened her fists. She nodded and ruffled his friend’s hair with a hand, wearing a brand new smile on her lips and facing the others.

 _Protect. Maybe you’re no Leader, but you’ve always been the protector,_ she reminded herself silently.

“Well! Looks like you guys are stuck with me as Black Paladin! Plus, as Zamia explained… It depends on our Quintessence, and it does look like Black picked me despite the odds.”

The Alteans and Paladins stared at her with anxiety and distrust, none of them understanding why the Black Lion would choose her, out of all the competent people in the Universe.

She grinned widely, relieved that her _fake it til you make it_ skills proved themselves very useful once again.

After all, none of them was even doubting that behind her mask, she was more terrified by this new position than all of them reunited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DIBS ON TROUBLES! (sorry I had to lmao)
> 
> Did you like this chapter? Now we met the Alteans (what did you think of them so far?) and we know who the paladins are! Surprised? Maybe not? Or maybe... the paladins' reactions when learning that Jijii will be the Black Paladin was the real surprise ;)
> 
> PS: were you able to pick on some clues about the plot? I love foreshadowing, so if a detail make you tick... follow your instincts!
> 
> You can also follow me on [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jijii.teerah/) or [tumblr](http://jijii-production.tumblr.com) ! 


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